Cargando…

Identification and Comparative Analysis of the Protocadherin Cluster in a Reptile, the Green Anole Lizard

BACKGROUND: The vertebrate protocadherins are a subfamily of cell adhesion molecules that are predominantly expressed in the nervous system and are believed to play an important role in establishing the complex neural network during animal development. Genes encoding these molecules are organized in...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jiang, Xiao-Juan, Li, Shaobing, Ravi, Vydianathan, Venkatesh, Byrappa, Yu, Wei-Ping
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2764143/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19898614
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007614
_version_ 1782173070172094464
author Jiang, Xiao-Juan
Li, Shaobing
Ravi, Vydianathan
Venkatesh, Byrappa
Yu, Wei-Ping
author_facet Jiang, Xiao-Juan
Li, Shaobing
Ravi, Vydianathan
Venkatesh, Byrappa
Yu, Wei-Ping
author_sort Jiang, Xiao-Juan
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The vertebrate protocadherins are a subfamily of cell adhesion molecules that are predominantly expressed in the nervous system and are believed to play an important role in establishing the complex neural network during animal development. Genes encoding these molecules are organized into a cluster in the genome. Comparative analysis of the protocadherin subcluster organization and gene arrangements in different vertebrates has provided interesting insights into the history of vertebrate genome evolution. Among tetrapods, protocadherin clusters have been fully characterized only in mammals. In this study, we report the identification and comparative analysis of the protocadherin cluster in a reptile, the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We show that the anole protocadherin cluster spans over a megabase and encodes a total of 71 genes. The number of genes in the anole protocadherin cluster is significantly higher than that in the coelacanth (49 genes) and mammalian (54–59 genes) clusters. The anole protocadherin genes are organized into four subclusters: the δ, α, β and γ. This subcluster organization is identical to that of the coelacanth protocadherin cluster, but differs from the mammalian clusters which lack the δ subcluster. The gene number expansion in the anole protocadherin cluster is largely due to the extensive gene duplication in the γb subgroup. Similar to coelacanth and elephant shark protocadherin genes, the anole protocadherin genes have experienced a low frequency of gene conversion. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that similar to the protocadherin clusters in other vertebrates, the evolution of anole protocadherin cluster is driven mainly by lineage-specific gene duplications and degeneration. Our analysis also shows that loss of the protocadherin δ subcluster in the mammalian lineage occurred after the divergence of mammals and reptiles. We present a model for the evolutionary history of the protocadherin cluster in tetrapods.
format Text
id pubmed-2764143
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2009
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-27641432009-11-06 Identification and Comparative Analysis of the Protocadherin Cluster in a Reptile, the Green Anole Lizard Jiang, Xiao-Juan Li, Shaobing Ravi, Vydianathan Venkatesh, Byrappa Yu, Wei-Ping PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: The vertebrate protocadherins are a subfamily of cell adhesion molecules that are predominantly expressed in the nervous system and are believed to play an important role in establishing the complex neural network during animal development. Genes encoding these molecules are organized into a cluster in the genome. Comparative analysis of the protocadherin subcluster organization and gene arrangements in different vertebrates has provided interesting insights into the history of vertebrate genome evolution. Among tetrapods, protocadherin clusters have been fully characterized only in mammals. In this study, we report the identification and comparative analysis of the protocadherin cluster in a reptile, the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We show that the anole protocadherin cluster spans over a megabase and encodes a total of 71 genes. The number of genes in the anole protocadherin cluster is significantly higher than that in the coelacanth (49 genes) and mammalian (54–59 genes) clusters. The anole protocadherin genes are organized into four subclusters: the δ, α, β and γ. This subcluster organization is identical to that of the coelacanth protocadherin cluster, but differs from the mammalian clusters which lack the δ subcluster. The gene number expansion in the anole protocadherin cluster is largely due to the extensive gene duplication in the γb subgroup. Similar to coelacanth and elephant shark protocadherin genes, the anole protocadherin genes have experienced a low frequency of gene conversion. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that similar to the protocadherin clusters in other vertebrates, the evolution of anole protocadherin cluster is driven mainly by lineage-specific gene duplications and degeneration. Our analysis also shows that loss of the protocadherin δ subcluster in the mammalian lineage occurred after the divergence of mammals and reptiles. We present a model for the evolutionary history of the protocadherin cluster in tetrapods. Public Library of Science 2009-10-29 /pmc/articles/PMC2764143/ /pubmed/19898614 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007614 Text en Jiang et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jiang, Xiao-Juan
Li, Shaobing
Ravi, Vydianathan
Venkatesh, Byrappa
Yu, Wei-Ping
Identification and Comparative Analysis of the Protocadherin Cluster in a Reptile, the Green Anole Lizard
title Identification and Comparative Analysis of the Protocadherin Cluster in a Reptile, the Green Anole Lizard
title_full Identification and Comparative Analysis of the Protocadherin Cluster in a Reptile, the Green Anole Lizard
title_fullStr Identification and Comparative Analysis of the Protocadherin Cluster in a Reptile, the Green Anole Lizard
title_full_unstemmed Identification and Comparative Analysis of the Protocadherin Cluster in a Reptile, the Green Anole Lizard
title_short Identification and Comparative Analysis of the Protocadherin Cluster in a Reptile, the Green Anole Lizard
title_sort identification and comparative analysis of the protocadherin cluster in a reptile, the green anole lizard
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2764143/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19898614
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007614
work_keys_str_mv AT jiangxiaojuan identificationandcomparativeanalysisoftheprotocadherinclusterinareptilethegreenanolelizard
AT lishaobing identificationandcomparativeanalysisoftheprotocadherinclusterinareptilethegreenanolelizard
AT ravivydianathan identificationandcomparativeanalysisoftheprotocadherinclusterinareptilethegreenanolelizard
AT venkateshbyrappa identificationandcomparativeanalysisoftheprotocadherinclusterinareptilethegreenanolelizard
AT yuweiping identificationandcomparativeanalysisoftheprotocadherinclusterinareptilethegreenanolelizard