Adaptive evolution in the snake venom Kunitz/BPTI protein family |
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Authors: | Zupunski Vera Kordis Dusan Gubensek Franc |
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Institution: | Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia. |
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Abstract: | Snake venoms are rich sources of serine proteinase inhibitors that are members of the Kunitz/BPTI (bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor) family. However, only a few of their gene sequences have been determined from snakes. We therefore cloned the cDNAs for the trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitors from a Vipera ammodytes venom gland cDNA library. Phylogenetic analysis of these and other snake Kunitz/BPTI homologs shows the presence of three clusters, where sequences cluster by functional role. Analysis of the nucleotide sequences from the snake Kunitz/BPTI family shows that positive Darwinian selection was operating on the highly conserved BPTI fold, indicating that this family evolved by gene duplication and rapid diversification. |
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