Journal
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 38, Issue 10, Pages 4435-4448Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab184
Keywords
metallothionein domains; modular proteins; Chordata; Tunicata; ascidians; thaliaceans; appendicularians; metallothionein evolution
Funding
- Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion
- UAB the PIF grant
- Grup de Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya [2017SGR-864, 2017SGR-1665]
- [BIO2015-67358-C2-1-P]
- [BFU2016-80601-P]
- [PID2019-110562GB-I00]
- [BIO2015-67358-C2-2-P]
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The study focused on the evolution of metallothioneins (MTs), revealing significant structural and functional differences among different types of MTs, suggesting a complex evolutionary history of chordate MTs.
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.
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