Journal
IMMUNOGENETICS
Volume 64, Issue 1, Pages 49-58Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00251-011-0558-0
Keywords
Thymoproteasome; Immunoproteasome; beta 5t subunit; PSMB11; PSMB5
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan
- National Institutes of Health [AI027877]
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [10J03500, 11J04902, 21390112] Funding Source: KAKEN
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The thymoproteasome is a recently discovered, specialized form of 20S proteasomes expressed exclusively in the thymic cortex. Although the precise molecular mechanism by which the thymoproteasome exerts its function remains to be elucidated, accumulating evidence indicates that it plays a crucial role in positive selection of T cells. In the present study, we analyzed the evolution of the beta 5t subunit, a beta-type catalytic subunit uniquely present in thymoproteasomes. The gene coding for the beta 5t subunit, designated PSMB11, was identified in the cartilaginous fish, the most divergent group of jawed vertebrates compared to the other jawed vertebrates, but not in jawless vertebrates or invertebrates. Interestingly, teleost fish have two copies of apparently functional PSMB11 genes, designated PSMB11a and PSMB11b, that encode beta 5t subunits with distinct amino acids in the S1 pocket. BLAST searches of genome databases suggest that birds such as chickens, turkey, and zebra finch lost the PSMB11 gene, and have neither thymoproteasomes nor immunoproteasomes. In mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and teleost fishes, the PSMB11 gene (the PSMB11a gene in teleost fish) is located next to the PSMB5 gene coding for the beta 5 subunit of the standard 20S proteasome, indicating that the PSMB11 gene arose by tandem duplication from the evolutionarily more ancient PSMB5 gene. The general absence of introns in PSMB11 and an unusual exon-intron structure of jawed vertebrate PSMB5 suggest that PSMB5 lost introns and duplicated in tandem in a common ancestor of jawed vertebrates, with PSMB5 subsequently gaining two introns and PSMB11 remaining intronless.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available