Phylogenetic analysis of RhoGAP domain-containing proteins

Proteins containing an Rho GTPase-activating protein (RhoGAP) domain work as molecular switches involved in the regulation of diverse cellular functions. The abil- ity of these GTPases to regulate a wide number of cellular processes comes from their interactions with multiple effectors and inhibitors, including the RhoGAP family, which stimulates their intrinsic GTPase activity. Here, a phylogenetic approach was applied to study the evolutionary relationship among 59 RhoGAP domain-containing proteins. The sequences were aligned by their RhoGAP do- mains and the phylogenetic hypotheses were generated using Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian analyses. The character tracing of two traits, GTPase activity and presence of other domains, indicated a significant phylogenetic signal for both of them.