Home > Articles > Published articles > Tunicates Illuminate the Enigmatic Evolution of Chordate Metallothioneins by Gene Gains and Losses, Independent Modular Expansions, and Functional Convergences |
Date: | 2021 |
Abstract: | To investigate novel patterns and processes of protein evolution, we have focused in the metallothioneins (MTs), a singular group of metal-binding, cysteine-rich proteins that, due to their high degree of sequence diversity, still represents a "black hole" in Evolutionary Biology. We have identified and analyzed more than 160 new MTs in nonvertebrate chordates (especially in 37 species of ascidians, 4 thaliaceans, and 3 appendicularians) showing that prototypic tunicate MTs are mono-modular proteins with a pervasive preference for cadmium ions, whereas vertebrate and cephalochordate MTs are bimodular proteins with diverse metal preferences. These structural and functional differences imply a complex evolutionary history of chordate MTs-including de novo emergence of genes and domains, processes of convergent evolution, events of gene gains and losses, and recurrent amplifications of functional domains-that would stand for an unprecedented case in the field of protein evolution. |
Grants: | Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BIO2015-67358-C2-1-P Agencia Estatal de Investigación BFU2016-80601-P Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2019-110562GB-I00 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BIO2015-67358-C2-2-P Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-864 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-1665 |
Rights: | Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. |
Language: | Anglès |
Document: | Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada |
Subject: | Metallothionein domains ; Modular proteins ; Chordata ; Tunicata ; Ascidians/thaliaceans/appendicularians ; Metallothionein evolution |
Published in: | Molecular biology and evolution, Vol. 38, Issue 10 (October 2021) , p. 4435-4448, ISSN 1537-1719 |
14 p, 924.4 KB |