Section edited by Maria Anisimova, Arndt von Haeseler and David Liberles
This section considers studies on genome evolution and systems biology approaches to determining evolutionary processes.
Section edited by Maria Anisimova, Arndt von Haeseler and David Liberles
This section considers studies on genome evolution and systems biology approaches to determining evolutionary processes.
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The relative influence of diet and phylogeny on snake venom activity is a poorly understood aspect of snake venom evolution. We measured the activity of two enzyme toxin groups – phospholipase A2 (PLA2), and L-am...
Supernumerary ORFan genes (i.e., open reading frames without obvious homology to other genes) are present in the mitochondrial genomes of gonochoric freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionida) showing doubly unipa...
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are the most widely studied innate immunity receptors responsible for recognition of invading pathogens. Among the TLR family, TLR5 is the only that senses and recognizes flagellin, ...
Lymphotoxin-α (LTα), located in the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class III region on chromosome 6, encodes a cytotoxic protein that mediates a variety of antiviral responses among other biological funct...
In mammals, the natriuretic system contains three natriuretic peptides, NPPA, NPPB and NPPC, that bind to three transmembrane receptors, NPR1, NPR2 and NPR3. The natriuretic peptides are known only in vertebra...
The buffalo, despite its superior milk-producing ability, suffers from reproductive limitations that constrain its lifetime productivity. Male sub-fertility, manifested as low conception rates (CRs), is a majo...
Various apolipoproteins widely distributed among vertebrata play key roles in lipid metabolism and have a direct correlation with human diseases as diagnostic markers. However, the evolutionary progress of apo...
Antarctic fishes of the Notothenioidei suborder constitutively upregulate multiple inducible chaperones, a highly derived adaptation that preserves proteostasis in extreme cold, and represent a system for stud...
The BLOC1S2 gene encodes the multifunctional protein BLOS2, a shared subunit of two lysosomal trafficking complexes: i) biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex-1 and i) BLOC-1-related complex. In our pr...
The transition from land to sea by the ancestor of cetaceans approximately 50 million years ago was an incredible evolutionary event that led to a series of morphological, physiological, and behavioral adaptat...
Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt), the causal agent of wheat powdery mildew severely affects yield security wheat production in China. Understanding the virulence structure and genetic variations of this pat...
Satellites or tandem repeats are very abundant in many eukaryotic genomes. Occasionally they have been reported to be present in some prokaryotes, but to our knowledge there is no general comparative study on ...
Vomeronasal type 1 receptor genes (V1Rs) are expected to detect intraspecific pheromones. It is believed that rodents rely heavily on pheromonal communication mediated by V1Rs, but pheromonal signals are thought ...
A number of non-visual responses to light in vertebrates, such as circadian rhythm control and pupillary light reflex, are mediated by melanopsins, G-protein coupled membrane receptors, conjugated to a retinal...
In the absence of sex and recombination, genomes are expected to accumulate deleterious mutations via an irreversible process known as Muller’s ratchet, especially in the case of polyploidy. In contrast, no ge...
Two spliceosomal intron types co-exist in eukaryotic precursor mRNAs and are excised by distinct U2-dependent and U12-dependent spliceosomes. In the diplomonad Giardia lamblia, small nuclear (sn) RNAs show hybrid...
There is wide agreement that only a subset of the twenty standard amino acids existed prebiotically in sufficient concentrations to form functional polypeptides. We ask how this subset, postulated as {A,D,E,G,...
The evolution of complex organs is thought to occur via a stepwise process, each subsequent step increasing the organ’s complexity by a tiny amount. This evolutionary process can be studied by comparing closel...
Genes that encode proteins associated with sperm competition, fertilization, and sexual conflicts of interest are often among the most rapidly evolving parts of animal genomes. One family of sperm-expressed ge...
Adenosine deaminase enzymes of the ADAR family are conserved in metazoans. They convert adenine into inosine in dsRNAs and thus alter both structural properties and the coding potential of their substrates. Ac...
Antioxidative enzymes contribute to a parasite’s ability to counteract the host’s intracellular killing mechanisms. The facultative intracellular oyster parasite, Perkinsus marinus, a sister taxon to dinoflagella...
Rapid accumulation of vertebrate genome sequences render comparative genomics a powerful approach to study macro-evolutionary events. The assessment of phylogenic relationships between species routinely depend...
Our laboratory identified ADGRL4/ELTD1, an orphan GPCR belonging to the adhesion GPCR (aGPCR) family, as a novel regulator of angiogenesis and a potential anti-cancer therapeutic target. Little is known about ...
Previously, we have demonstrated that genes involved in ovarian function are highly conserved throughout evolution. In this study, we aimed to document the conservation of genes involved in spermatogenesis fro...
The evolutionary probability (EP) of an allele in a DNA or protein sequence predicts evolutionarily permissible (ePerm; EP ≥ 0.05) and forbidden (eForb; EP < 0.05) variants. EP of an allele represents an indep...
The emergence of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) strains of the important human and animal pathogen Salmonella enterica poses a growing threat to public health. Here, we studied the genome-wide evolution of 90 S. e...
The hypothesis that vertebrates have experienced two ancient, whole genome duplications (WGDs) is of central interest to evolutionary biology and has been implicated in evolution of developmental complexity. T...
L-ascorbate (Vitamin C) is an important antioxidant and co-factor in eukaryotic cells, and in mammals it is indispensable for brain development and cognitive function. Vertebrates usually become L-ascorbate au...
Mycobacteria occupy various ecological niches and can be isolated from soil, tap water and ground water. Several cause diseases in humans and animals. To get deeper insight into our understanding of mycobacter...
Plant pathogens are under significant selective pressure by the plant host. Consequently, they are expected to have adapted to this condition or contribute to evading plant defenses. In order to acquire long-t...
The S100A7 gene, also called psoriasin, was first described as an upregulated protein in psoriatic skin. For the past years, the importance of this protein as a key effector of innate immunity has been clearly es...
Cellulose, a major polysaccharide of the plant cell wall, consists of β-1,4-linked glucose moieties forming a molecular network recalcitrant to enzymatic breakdown. Although cellulose is potentially a rich sou...
The Micronycterinae form a subfamily of leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) that contains the genera Lampronycteris Sanborn, 1949, and Micronycteris Gray, 1866 (stricto sensu), and is characterized by marked karyoty...
Gene duplication has played an important role in the evolution and domestication of flowering plants. Yet little is known about how plant duplicate genes evolve and are retained over long timescales, particula...
Animals have a greater diversity of signalling pathways than their unicellular relatives, consistent with the evolution and expansion of these pathways occurring in parallel with the origin of animal multicell...
Standard evolutionary theories of aging postulate that reduced extrinsic mortality leads to evolution of longevity. Clownfishes of the genus Amphiprion live in a symbiotic relationship with sea anemones that p...
Parasitic plants rely on their host to cover their nutritional requirements either for their entire life or a smaller part of it. Depending on the level of parasitism, a proportional reduction on the plastid g...
The genus Streptococcus comprises pathogens that strongly influence the health of humans and animals. Genome sequencing of multiple Streptococcus strains demonstrated high variability in gene content and order ev...
Transcription factors (TFs) play a key role in regulating plant development and response to environmental stimuli. While most genes revert to single copy after whole genome duplication (WGD) event, transcripti...
Frizzled family members belong to G-protein coupled receptors and encode proteins accountable for cell signal transduction, cell proliferation and cell death. Members of Frizzled receptor family are considered...
Interactions between transcription factors and their specific binding sites are a key component of regulation of gene expression. Until recently, it was generally assumed that most bacterial transcription fact...
β-Amylases (BAMs) are a multigene family of glucan hydrolytic enzymes playing a key role not only for plant biology but also for many industrial applications, such as the malting process in the brewing and dis...
The plastid is a semiautonomous organelle with its own genome. Plastid genomes have been widely used as models for studying phylogeny, speciation and adaptive evolution. However, most studies focus on comparis...
In recent years, increasing attention has been placed on the development of phylogeny-based statistical methodologies for uncovering site-specific changes in amino acid fitness profiles over time. The few avai...
Sex-biased gene expression is thought to drive the phenotypic differences in males and females in metazoans. Drosophila has served as a primary model for studying male-female differences in gene expression, an...
The C-C motif chemokine ligand 16 (CCL16) is a potent pro-inflammatory chemokine and a chemoattractant for monocytes and lymphocytes. In normal plasma, it is present at high concentrations and elicits its effe...
Germ lines are the cell lineages that give rise to the sperm and eggs in animals. The germ lines first arise from primordial germ cells (PGCs) during embryogenesis: these form from either a presumed derived mo...
Cilia and flagella are complex cellular structures thought to have first evolved in a last ciliated eukaryotic ancestor due to the conserved 9 + 2 microtubule doublet structure of the axoneme and associated pr...
Many physiological processes are influenced by nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR), ranging from neuromuscular and parasympathetic signaling to modulation of the reward system and long-term memory. Due t...
Among the four bases, guanine is the most susceptible to damage from oxidative stress. Replication of DNA containing damaged guanines results in G to T mutations. Therefore, the mutations resulting from oxidat...
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