Journal
STRUCTURE
Volume 14, Issue 12, Pages 1823-1834Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2006.10.008
Keywords
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Funding
- Intramural NIH HHS [Z01 EY000433] Funding Source: Medline
- NEI NIH HHS [Z01 EY000320-07] Funding Source: Medline
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Lengsin is a major protein of the vertebrate eye lens. It belongs to the hitherto purely prokaryotic GS I branch of the glutamine synthetase (GS) superfamily, but has no enzyme activity. Like the taxon-specific crystallins, Lengsin is the result of the recruitment of an ancient enzyme to a noncatalytic role in the vertebrate lens. Cryo-EM and modeling studies of Lengsin show a dodecamer structure with important similarities and differences with prokaryotic GS I structures. GS homology regions of Lengsin are well conserved, but the N-terminal domain shows evidence of dynamic evolutionary changes. Compared with birds and fish, most mammals have an additional exon corresponding to part of the N-terminal domain; however, in human, this is a nonfunctional pseudoexon. Genes related to Lengsin are also present in the sea urchin, suggesting that this branch of the GS I family, supplanted by GS II enzymes in vertebrates, has an ancient role in metazoans.
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