Phylogenetic diversification of sirtuin genes with a description of a new family member

AbstractStudying the evolutionary history of gene families is a challenging and exciting task with a wide range of implications. In addition to exploring fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of genes, disentangling their evolution is also critical to those who do functional/structural work, as the correct interpretation of their results needs to be done in a robust evolutionary context. The sirtuin gene family is a group of genes that are involved in a variety of biological functions mostly related to aging. Their duplicative history is an open question, as well as the definition of the repertoire of sirtuin genes among vertebrates. Our goal is to take advantage of the genomic data available in public databases to advance our understanding of how sirtuin genes are related to each other, and to characterize the gene repertoire in species representative of all the main groups of vertebrates. Our results show a well-resolved phylogeny that represents a significant improvement in our understanding of the duplicative history of the sirtuin gene family. We identified a new sirtuin family member (SIRT3-like) that was apparently lost in amniotes, but retained in all other groups of jawed vertebrates. Our results indicate that there are at least eight sirtuin paralogs among vertebrates and that all of them can be traced back to the last common ancestor of the group that existed between 676 and 615 millions of years ago.

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Expansion, retention and loss in the Acyl-CoA Synthetase “Bubblegum” (Acsbg) gene family in vertebrate history

10.1101/288530 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Mónica Lopes-Marques ◽

André M. Machado ◽

Raquel Ruivo ◽

Elza Fonseca ◽

Estela Carvalho ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Family ◽

Metabolic Pathways ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Gene Families ◽

Gene Repertoire ◽

Physiological Processes ◽

Complex Lipid ◽

History Of ◽

Enzyme Families ◽

Rate Limiting

AbstractFatty acids (FAs) constitute a considerable fraction of all lipid molecules with a fundamental role in numerous physiological processes. In animals, the majority of complex lipid molecules are derived from the transformation of FAs through several biochemical pathways. Yet, for FAs to enroll in these pathways they require an activation step. FA activation is catalyzed by the rate limiting action of Acyl-CoA synthases. Several Acyl-CoA enzyme families have been previously described and classified according to the chain length of FA they process. Here, we address the evolutionary history of the ACSBG gene family which activates, FA with more than 16 carbons. Currently, two different ACSBG gene families, ACSBG1 and ACSBG2, are recognized in vertebrates. We provide evidence that a wider and unequal ACSBG gene repertoire is present in vertebrate lineages. We identify a novel ACSBG-like gene lineage which occurs specifically in amphibians, ray finned fish, coelacanths and chondrichthyes named ACSBG3. Also, we show that the ACSBG2 gene lineage duplicated in the Theria ancestor. Our findings, thus offer a far richer understanding on FA activation in vertebrates and provide key insights into the relevance of comparative and functional analysis to perceive physiological differences, namely those related with lipid metabolic pathways.

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Structure and evolutionary history of a large family of NLR proteins in the zebrafish

10.1101/022061 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Kerstin Howe ◽

Philipp H Schiffer ◽

Julia Zielinski ◽

Thomas Wiehe ◽

Gavin K Laird ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Family ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Large Family ◽

Gene Families ◽

Immune Recognition ◽

Chromosome 4 ◽

New Family ◽

History Of ◽

Evolutionary Trajectories ◽

B30.2 Domain

NACHT- and Leucine-Rich-Repeat-containing domain (NLR) proteins act as cytoplasmic sensors for pathogen- and danger-associated molecular patterns and are found throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. In addition to having a small set of conserved NLRs, the genomes in some animal lineages contain massive expansions of this gene family. One of these arose in fishes, after the creation of a gene fusion that combined the core NLR domains with another domain used for immune recognition, the PRY/SPRY or B30.2 domain. We have analysed the expanded NLR gene family in zebrafish, which contains 368 genes, and studied its evolutionary history. The encoded proteins share a defining overall structure, but individual domains show different evolutionary trajectories. Our results suggest gene conversion homogenizes NACHT and B30.2 domain sequences among different gene subfamilies, however, the functional implications of its action remains unclear. The majority of the genes are located on the long arm of chromosome 4, interspersed with several other large multi-gene families, including a new family encoding proteins with multiple tandem arrays of Zinc fingers. This suggests that chromosome 4 may be a hotspot for rapid evolutionary change in zebrafish.

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iHam and pyHam: visualizing and processing hierarchical orthologous groups

Bioinformatics ◽

10.1093/bioinformatics/bty994 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 (14) ◽

pp. 2504-2506 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Clément-Marie Train ◽

Miguel Pignatelli ◽

Adrian Altenhoff ◽

Christophe Dessimoz

Keyword(s):

Gene Family ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Gene Families ◽

Comparative Genomic ◽

Last Common Ancestor ◽

Analysis Method ◽

Ancestral Gene ◽

Genomic Analyses ◽

History Of ◽

Multiple Species

Abstract Summary The evolutionary history of gene families can be complex due to duplications and losses. This complexity is compounded by the large number of genomes simultaneously considered in contemporary comparative genomic analyses. As provided by several orthology databases, hierarchical orthologous groups (HOGs) are sets of genes that are inferred to have descended from a common ancestral gene within a species clade. This implies that the set of HOGs defined for a particular clade correspond to the ancestral genes found in its last common ancestor. Furthermore, by keeping track of HOG composition along the species tree, it is possible to infer the emergence, duplications and losses of genes within a gene family of interest. However, the lack of tools to manipulate and analyse HOGs has made it difficult to extract, display and interpret this type of information. To address this, we introduce interactive HOG analysis method, an interactive JavaScript widget to visualize and explore gene family history encoded in HOGs and python HOG analysis method, a python library for programmatic processing of genes families. These complementary open source tools greatly ease adoption of HOGs as a scalable and interpretable concept to relate genes across multiple species. Availability and implementation iHam’s code is available at https://github.com/DessimozLab/iHam or can be loaded dynamically. pyHam’s code is available at https://github.com/DessimozLab/pyHam and or via the pip package ‘pyham’.

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The hard clam genome reveals massive expansion and diversification of inhibitors of apoptosis in Bivalvia

BMC Biology ◽

10.1186/s12915-020-00943-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Hao Song ◽

Ximing Guo ◽

Lina Sun ◽

Qianghui Wang ◽

Fengming Han ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Family ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Tandem Duplication ◽

Expression Patterns ◽

Hard Clam ◽

Gene Repertoire ◽

Single Chromosome ◽

Inhibitors Of Apoptosis ◽

History Of ◽

Evolutionary Success

Abstract Background Inhibitors of apoptosis (IAPs) are critical regulators of programmed cell death that are essential for development, oncogenesis, and immune and stress responses. However, available knowledge regarding IAP is largely biased toward humans and model species, while the distribution, function, and evolutionary novelties of this gene family remain poorly understood in many taxa, including Mollusca, the second most speciose phylum of Metazoa. Results Here, we present a chromosome-level genome assembly of an economically significant bivalve, the hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria, which reveals an unexpected and dramatic expansion of the IAP gene family to 159 members, the largest IAP gene repertoire observed in any metazoan. Comparative genome analysis reveals that this massive expansion is characteristic of bivalves more generally. Reconstruction of the evolutionary history of molluscan IAP genes indicates that most originated in early metazoans and greatly expanded in Bivalvia through both lineage-specific tandem duplication and retroposition, with 37.1% of hard clam IAPs located on a single chromosome. The expanded IAPs have been subjected to frequent domain shuffling, which has in turn shaped their architectural diversity. Further, we observed that extant IAPs exhibit dynamic and orchestrated expression patterns among tissues and in response to different environmental stressors. Conclusions Our results suggest that sophisticated regulation of apoptosis enabled by the massive expansion and diversification of IAPs has been crucial for the evolutionary success of hard clam and other molluscan lineages, allowing them to cope with local environmental stresses. This study broadens our understanding of IAP proteins and expression diversity and provides novel resources for studying molluscan biology and IAP function and evolution.

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Gene family innovation, conservation and loss on the animal stem lineage

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.34226 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

Cited By ~ 58

Author(s):

Daniel J Richter ◽

Parinaz Fozouni ◽

Michael B Eisen ◽

Nicole King

Keyword(s):

Gene Family ◽

Gene Families ◽

Gene Content ◽

Gene Repertoire ◽

Toll Like Receptor ◽

Stem Lineage ◽

Gains And Losses ◽

Core Features

Choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of animals, can provide unique insights into the changes in gene content that preceded the origin of animals. However, only two choanoflagellate genomes are currently available, providing poor coverage of their diversity. We sequenced transcriptomes of 19 additional choanoflagellate species to produce a comprehensive reconstruction of the gains and losses that shaped the ancestral animal gene repertoire. We identified ~1944 gene families that originated on the animal stem lineage, of which only 39 are conserved across all animals in our study. In addition, ~372 gene families previously thought to be animal-specific, including Notch, Delta, and homologs of the animal Toll-like receptor genes, instead evolved prior to the animal-choanoflagellate divergence. Our findings contribute to an increasingly detailed portrait of the gene families that defined the biology of the Urmetazoan and that may underpin core features of extant animals.

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2000 Fleming Lecture. The origin and evolution of hepatitis viruses in humans

Journal of General Virology ◽

10.1099/0022-1317-82-4-693 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 82 (4) ◽

pp. 693-712 ◽

Cited By ~ 150

Author(s):

Peter Simmonds

Keyword(s):

Large Population ◽

Human Populations ◽

Hepatitis Viruses ◽

Hepatitis G Virus ◽

Origin And Evolution ◽

Wide Range ◽

Population Sizes ◽

History Of ◽

Virus C ◽

Time Of Divergence

The spread and origins of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in human populations have been the subject of extensive investigations, not least because of the importance this information would provide in predicting clinical outcomes and controlling spread of HCV in the future. However, in the absence of historical and archaeological records of infection, the evolution of HCV and other human hepatitis viruses can only be inferred indirectly from their epidemiology and by genetic analysis of contemporary virus populations. Some information on the history of the latter may be obtained by dating the time of divergence of various genotypes of HCV, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the non-pathogenic hepatitis G virus (HGV)/GB virus-C (GBV-C). However, the relatively recent times predicted for the origin of these viruses fit poorly with their epidemiological distributions and the recent evidence for species-associated variants of HBV and HGV/GBV-C in a wide range of non-human primates. The apparent conservatism of viruses over long periods implied by these latter observations may be the result of constraints on sequence change peculiar to viruses with single-stranded genomes, or with overlapping reading frames. Large population sizes and intense selection pressures that optimize fitness may be the factors that set virus evolution apart from that of their hosts.

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The genome of the blind soil-dwelling and ancestrally wingless dipluran Campodea augens, a key reference hexapod for studying the emergence of insect innovations

10.1101/585695 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mosè Manni ◽

Felipe A. Simao ◽

Hugh M. Robertson ◽

Marco A. Gabaglio ◽

Robert M. Waterhouse ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Draft Genome ◽

Gene Families ◽

Sister Group ◽

Sensu Stricto ◽

Comparative Genomic ◽

Gene Repertoire ◽

Animal Group ◽

Origin And Evolution ◽

Genomic Analyses ◽

Metabolism Gene

AbstractThe dipluran two-pronged bristletail Campodea augens is a blind ancestrally wingless hexapod with the remarkable capacity to regenerate lost body appendages such as its long antennae. As sister group to Insecta (sensu stricto), Diplura are key to understanding the early evolution of hexapods and the origin and evolution of insects. Here we report the 1.2-Gbp draft genome of C. augens and results from comparative genomic analyses with other arthropods. In C. augens we uncovered the largest chemosensory gene repertoire of ionotropic receptors in the animal kingdom, a massive expansion which might compensate for the loss of vision. We found a paucity of photoreceptor genes mirroring at the genomic level the secondary loss of an ancestral external photoreceptor organ. Expansions of detoxification and carbohydrate metabolism gene families might reflect adaptations for foraging behaviour, and duplicated apoptotic genes might underlie its high regenerative potential.The C. augens genome represents one of the key references for studying the emergence of genomic innovations in insects, the most diverse animal group, and opens up novel opportunities to study the under-explored biology of diplurans.

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Evolutionary history of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) demethylation enzyme DmdA in marine bacteria

10.1101/766360 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Laura Hernández ◽

Alberto Vicens ◽

Luis Enrique Eguiarte ◽

Valeria Souza ◽

Valerie De Anda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Family ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Common Ancestor ◽

Functional Divergence ◽

Gene Families ◽

Recent Common Ancestor ◽

Common Ancestry ◽

Demethylation Pathway ◽

History Of ◽

New Gene

ABSTRACTDimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), an osmolyte produced by oceanic phytoplankton, is predominantly degraded by bacteria belonging to the Roseobacter lineage and other marine Alphaproteobacteria via DMSP-dependent demethylase A protein (DmdA). To date, the evolutionary history of DmdA gene family is unclear. Some studies indicate a common ancestry between DmdA and GcvT gene families and a co-evolution between Roseobacter and the DMSP-producing-phytoplankton around 250 million years ago (Mya). In this work, we analyzed the evolution of DmdA under three possible evolutionary scenarios: 1) a recent common ancestor of DmdA and GcvT, 2) a coevolution between Roseobacter and the DMSP-producing-phytoplankton, and 3) pre-adapted enzymes to DMSP prior to Roseobacter origin. Our analyses indicate that DmdA is a new gene family originated from GcvT genes by duplication and functional divergence driven by positive selection before a coevolution between Roseobacter and phytoplankton. Our data suggest that Roseobacter acquired dmdA by horizontal gene transfer prior to exposition to an environment with higher DMSP. Here, we propose that the ancestor that carried the DMSP demethylation pathway genes evolved in the Archean, and was exposed to a higher concentration of DMSP in a sulfur rich atmosphere and anoxic ocean, compared to recent Roseobacter ecoparalogs (copies performing the same function under different conditions), which should be adapted to lower concentrations of DMSP.

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Evolutionary history of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) demethylation enzyme DmdA in marine bacteria

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.9861 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. e9861

Author(s):

Laura Hernández ◽

Alberto Vicens ◽

Luis E. Eguiarte ◽

Valeria Souza ◽

Valerie De Anda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gene Family ◽

Marine Bacteria ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Functional Divergence ◽

Gene Families ◽

Recent Common Ancestor ◽

Demethylation Pathway ◽

History Of ◽

New Gene ◽

Enzymatic Adaptation

Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), an osmolyte produced by oceanic phytoplankton and bacteria, is primarily degraded by bacteria belonging to the Roseobacter lineage and other marine Alphaproteobacteria via DMSP-dependent demethylase A protein (DmdA). To date, the evolutionary history of DmdA gene family is unclear. Some studies indicate a common ancestry between DmdA and GcvT gene families and a co-evolution between Roseobacter and the DMSP-producing-phytoplankton around 250 million years ago (Mya). In this work, we analyzed the evolution of DmdA under three possible evolutionary scenarios: (1) a recent common ancestor of DmdA and GcvT, (2) a coevolution between Roseobacter and the DMSP-producing-phytoplankton, and (3) an enzymatic adaptation for utilizing DMSP in marine bacteria prior to Roseobacter origin. Our analyses indicate that DmdA is a new gene family originated from GcvT genes by duplication and functional divergence driven by positive selection before a coevolution between Roseobacter and phytoplankton. Our data suggest that Roseobacter acquired dmdA by horizontal gene transfer prior to an environment with higher DMSP. Here, we propose that the ancestor that carried the DMSP demethylation pathway genes evolved in the Archean, and was exposed to a higher concentration of DMSP in a sulfur-rich atmosphere and anoxic ocean, compared to recent Roseobacter eco-orthologs (orthologs performing the same function under different conditions), which should be adapted to lower concentrations of DMSP.

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Screening by deep sequencing reveals mediators of microRNA tailing in C. elegans

10.1101/2021.01.11.426275 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Katherine Prothro ◽

Karl-Frédéric Vieux ◽

Cameron Palmer ◽

Isana Veksler-Lublinsky ◽

Katherine McJunkin

Keyword(s):

Gene Family ◽

Family Member ◽

Gene Families ◽

Global Regulator ◽

C Elegans ◽

Gene Family Member ◽

Mature Microrna ◽

Functional Consequences

AbstractmicroRNAs are frequently modified by addition of untemplated nucleotides to the 3’ end, but the role of this tailing is often unclear. Here we characterize the prevalence and functional consequences of microRNA tailing in vivo, using the C. elegans model. MicroRNA tailing in C. elegans consists mostly of mono-uridylation of mature microRNA species, with rarer mono-adenylation which is likely added to microRNA precursors. Through a targeted RNAi screen, we discover that the TUT4/TUT7 gene family member CID-1/CDE-1/PUP-1 is required for uridylation, whereas the GLD2 gene family member F31C3.2 is required for adenylation. Thus, the TUT4/TUT7 and GLD2 gene families have broadly conserved roles in miRNA modification. We specifically examine the role of tailing in microRNA turnover. We determine half-lives of microRNAs after acute inactivation of microRNA biogenesis, revealing that half-lives are generally long (median=20.7h), as observed in other systems. Although we observe that tails are more prevalent on older microRNAs, disrupting tailing does not alter microRNA abundance or decay. Thus, tailing is not a global regulator of decay in C. elegans. Nonetheless, by identifying the responsible enzymes, this study lays the groundwork to explore whether tailing plays more specialized context- or miRNA-specific regulatory roles.

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