scholarly journals Origin and Evolution of the Gene Family of Proteinaceous Pheromones, the Exocrine Gland-Secreting Peptides, in Rodents

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshihito Niimura ◽  
Mai Tsunoda ◽  
Sari Kato ◽  
Ken Murata ◽  
Taichi Yanagawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Behavior ◽  
Gene Family ◽  
Sequence Similarity ◽  
Globin Gene ◽  
Vomeronasal Organ ◽  
Exocrine Gland ◽  
Mouse Strains ◽  
Coding Region ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
Species Specific

Abstract The exocrine-gland secreting peptide (ESP)gene family encodes proteinaceous pheromones that are recognized by the vomeronasal organ in mice. For example, ESP1 is a male pheromone secreted in tear fluid that regulates socio-sexual behavior, and ESP22 is a juvenile pheromone that suppresses adult sexual behavior. The family consists of multiple genes and has been identified only in mouse and rat genomes. The coding region of a mouse ESP gene is separated into two exons, each encoding signal and mature sequences. Here, we report the origin and evolution of the ESP gene family. ESP genes were found only in the Muridea and Cricetidae families of rodents, suggesting a recent origin of ESP genes in the common ancestor of murids and cricetids. ESP genes show a great diversity in number, length, and sequence among different species as well as mouse strains. Some ESPs in rats and golden hamsters are expressed in the lacrimal gland and the salivary gland. We also found that a mature sequence of an ESP gene showed overall sequence similarity to the α-globin gene. The ancestral ESP gene seems to be generated by recombination of a retrotransposed α-globin gene with the signal-encoding exon of the CRISP2 gene located adjacent to the ESP gene cluster. This study provides an intriguing example of molecular tinkering in rapidly evolving species-specific proteinaceous pheromone genes.

scholarly journals Genome-Wide Analysis of Terpene Synthase Gene Family in Mentha longifolia and Catalytic Activity Analysis of a Single Terpene Synthase

Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 518
Author(s):  
Zequn Chen ◽  
Xiwu Qi ◽  
Xu Yu ◽  
Ying Zheng ◽  
Zhiqi Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Catalytic Activity ◽  
Essential Oils ◽  
Gene Family ◽  
Genome Sequence ◽  
Sequence Assembly ◽  
Terpene Synthase ◽  
Genome Sequence Assembly ◽  
Mentha Longifolia ◽  
Specific Expansion ◽  
Species Specific

Terpenoids are a wide variety of natural products and terpene synthase (TPS) plays a key role in the biosynthesis of terpenoids. Mentha plants are rich in essential oils, whose main components are terpenoids, and their biosynthetic pathways have been basically elucidated. However, there is a lack of systematic identification and study of TPS in Mentha plants. In this work, we genome-widely identified and analyzed the TPS gene family in Mentha longifolia, a model plant for functional genomic research in the genus Mentha. A total of 63 TPS genes were identified in the M. longifolia genome sequence assembly, which could be divided into six subfamilies. The TPS-b subfamily had the largest number of genes, which might be related to the abundant monoterpenoids in Mentha plants. The TPS-e subfamily had 18 members and showed a significant species-specific expansion compared with other sequenced Lamiaceae plant species. The 63 TPS genes could be mapped to nine scaffolds of the M. longifolia genome sequence assembly and the distribution of these genes is uneven. Tandem duplicates and fragment duplicates contributed greatly to the increase in the number of TPS genes in M. longifolia. The conserved motifs (RR(X)8W, NSE/DTE, RXR, and DDXXD) were analyzed in M. longifolia TPSs, and significant differentiation was found between different subfamilies. Adaptive evolution analysis showed that M. longifolia TPSs were subjected to purifying selection after the species-specific expansion, and some amino acid residues under positive selection were identified. Furthermore, we also cloned and analyzed the catalytic activity of a single terpene synthase, MlongTPS29, which belongs to the TPS-b subfamily. MlongTPS29 could encode a limonene synthase and catalyze the biosynthesis of limonene, an important precursor of essential oils from the genus Mentha. This study provides useful information for the biosynthesis of terpenoids in the genus Mentha.

scholarly journals A Review of Murine Cytomegalovirus as a Model for Human Cytomegalovirus Disease—Do Mice Lie?

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 214
Author(s):  
Michelle A. Fisher ◽  
Megan L. Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
Human Cytomegalovirus ◽  
Murine Cytomegalovirus ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Mouse Strains ◽  
Cytomegalovirus Disease ◽  
Wild Mice ◽  
Congenital Cytomegalovirus ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Disseminated Disease

Since murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) was first described in 1954, it has been used to model human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) diseases. MCMV is a natural pathogen of mice that is present in wild mice populations and has been associated with diseases such as myocarditis. The species-specific nature of HCMV restricts most research to cell culture-based studies or to the investigation of non-invasive clinical samples, which may not be ideal for the study of disseminated disease. Initial MCMV research used a salivary gland-propagated virus administered via different routes of inoculation into a variety of mouse strains. This revealed that the genetic background of the laboratory mice affected the severity of disease and altered the extent of subsequent pathology. The advent of genetically modified mice and viruses has allowed new aspects of disease to be modeled and the opportunistic nature of HCMV infection to be confirmed. This review describes the different ways that MCMV has been used to model HCMV diseases and explores the continuing difficulty faced by researchers attempting to model HCMV congenital cytomegalovirus disease using the mouse model.

scholarly journals Diversity in the germline antibody repertoire. Molecular evolution of the T15 VN gene family.

1985 ◽  
Vol 162 (6) ◽  
pp. 1998-2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
R M Perlmutter ◽  
B Berson ◽  
J A Griffin ◽  
L Hood
Keyword(s):  
Gene Family ◽  
Gene Segment ◽  
Variable Region ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Mouse Strains ◽  
Antibody Repertoire ◽  
Region Gene ◽  
Environmental Selection ◽  
P Gene ◽  
Vh Gene

The T15 heavy chain variable region (VH) gene family in BALB/c mice includes four elements each greater than 88% homologous with the other. One of these elements, V1, encodes virtually all of the VH regions in BALB/c antiphosphorylcholine antibodies, while another element, V3, is a pseudogene and cannot be transcribed or translated. We have examined the structural features of this VH gene family in other mouse strains and, in particular, have cloned and sequenced the alleles of these gene segments present in B10.P mice. Each of the four B10.P sequences can be matched with its allelic counterpart in BALB/c mice. This represents the first successful analysis of allelism in antibody variable region gene segments. The V1B10.P allele, like its BALB/c counterpart, encodes most of the known phosphorylcholine binding heavy chains from C37BL/6 mice. Similarly, the V3B10.P gene segment is a pseudogene like V3BALB, although only two of four abnormalities present in the BALB/c allele are also present in the B10.P allele. Careful analysis of the specific substitutions observed in the T15 VH gene family suggests that environmental selection for functional combining regions contributes significantly to the pattern of variation in the germline antibody repertoire. In addition, evidence is presented supporting frequent gene conversion events in the divergence of antibody genes.

scholarly journals Comparative reactions of recombinant papaya ringspot viruses with chimeric coat protein (CP) genes and wild-type viruses on CP-transgenic papaya

2001 ◽  
Vol 82 (11) ◽  
pp. 2827-2836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chu-Hui Chiang ◽  
Ju-Jung Wang ◽  
Fuh-Jyh Jan ◽  
Shyi-Dong Yeh ◽  
Dennis Gonsalves
Keyword(s):  
Coat Protein ◽  
Sequence Similarity ◽  
Transcriptional Gene Silencing ◽  
Papaya Ringspot Virus ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Coding Region ◽  
Transgenic Papaya ◽  
Cp Gene ◽  
Post Transcriptional Gene Silencing

Transgenic papaya cultivars SunUp and Rainbow express the coat protein (CP) gene of the mild mutant of papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) HA. Both cultivars are resistant to PRSV HA and other Hawaii isolates through homology-dependent resistance via post-transcriptional gene silencing. However, Rainbow, which is hemizygous for the CP gene, is susceptible to PRSV isolates from outside Hawaii, while the CP-homozygous SunUp is resistant to most isolates but susceptible to the YK isolate from Taiwan. To investigate the role of CP sequence similarity in overcoming the resistance of Rainbow, PRSV HA recombinants with various CP segments of the YK isolate were constructed and evaluated on Rainbow, SunUp and non-transgenic papaya. Non-transgenic papaya were severely infected by all recombinants, but Rainbow plants developed a variety of symptoms. On Rainbow, a recombinant with the entire CP gene of YK caused severe symptoms, while recombinants with only partial YK CP sequences produced a range of milder symptoms. Interestingly, a recombinant with a YK segment from the 5′ region of the CP gene caused very mild, transient symptoms, whereas recombinants with YK segments from the middle and 3′ parts of the CP gene caused prominent and lasting symptoms. SunUp was resistant to all but two recombinants, which contained the entire CP gene or the central and 3′-end regions of the CP gene and the 3′ non-coding region of YK, and the resulting symptoms were mild. It is concluded that the position of the heterologous sequences in the recombinants influences their pathogenicity on Rainbow.

scholarly journals Generation, quality control, and analysis of the first genomically humanised knock-in mice for the ALS/FTD genes SOD1, TARDBP (TDP-43), and FUS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anny Devoy ◽  
Georgia Price ◽  
Francesca De Giorgio ◽  
Rosie Bunton-Stasyshyn ◽  
David Thompson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Mouse Models ◽  
Splice Variants ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
Human Protein ◽  
Mouse Strains ◽  
Coding Region ◽  
Protein Biochemistry ◽  
Oxford Nanopore

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - frontotemporal dementia spectrum disorder (ALS/FTD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease; up to 10% of cases are familial, usually arising from single dominant mutations in >30 causative genes. Transgenic mouse models that overexpress human ALS/FTD causative genes have been the preferred organism for in vivo modelling. However, while conferring human protein biochemistry, these overexpression models are not ideal for dosage-sensitive proteins such as TDP-43 or FUS. We have created three next-generation genomically humanised knock-in mouse models for ALS/FTD research, by replacing the entire mouse coding region of Sod1, Tardbp (TDP-43) and Fus, with their human orthologues to preserve human protein biochemistry, with exons and introns intact to enable future modelling of coding or non-coding mutations and variants and to preserve human splice variants. In generating these mice, we have established a new-standard of quality control: we demonstrate the utility of indirect capture for enrichment of a region of interest followed by Oxford Nanopore sequencing for robustly characterising large knock-in alleles. This approach confirmed that targeting occurred at the correct locus and to map homologous recombination events. Furthermore, extensive expression data from the three lines shows that homozygous humanised animals only express human protein, at endogenous levels. Characterisation of humanised FUS animals showed that they are phenotypically normal compared to wildtype littermates throughout their lifespan. These humanised mouse strains are critically needed for preclinical assessment of interventions, such as antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), to modulate expression levels in patients, and will serve as templates for the addition of human ALS/FTD mutations to dissect disease pathomechanisms.

scholarly journals The Two Drosophila Telomeric Transposable Elements Have Very Different Patterns of Transcription

1999 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 873-881 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. N. Danilevskaya ◽  
K. L. Traverse ◽  
N. C. Hogan ◽  
P. G. DeBaryshe ◽  
M. L. Pardue
Keyword(s):  
Transposable Elements ◽  
Sequence Similarity ◽  
Sequence Divergence ◽  
Full Length ◽  
Coding Region ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Reading Frame ◽  
Sequence Organization ◽  
Sense Strand ◽  
Cell Fractions

ABSTRACT The transposable elements HeT-A and TARTconstitute the telomeres of Drosophila chromosomes. Both are non-long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons, sharing the remarkable property of transposing only to chromosome ends. In addition, strong sequence similarity of their gag proteins indicates that these coding regions share a common ancestor. These findings led to the assumption that HeT-A andTART are closely related. However, we now find that these elements produce quite different sets of transcripts. HeT-Aproduces only sense-strand transcripts of the full-length element, whereas TART produces both sense and antisense full-length RNAs, with antisense transcripts in more than 10-fold excess over sense RNA. In addition, features of TART sequence organization resemble those of a subclass of non-LTR elements characterized by unequal terminal repeats. Thus, the ancestral gag sequence appears to have become incorporated in two different types of elements, possibly with different functions in the telomere. HeT-Atranscripts are found in both nuclear and cytoplasmic cell fractions, consistent with roles as both mRNA and transposition template. In contrast, both sense and antisense TART transcripts are almost entirely concentrated in nuclear fractions. Also,TART open reading frame 2 probes detect a cytoplasmic mRNA for reverse transcriptase (RT), with no similarity to TARTsequence 5′ or 3′ of the RT coding region. This RNA could be a processed TART transcript or the product of a “free-standing” RT gene. Either origin would be novel. The distinctive transcription patterns of both HeT-A andTART are conserved in Drosophila yakuba, despite significant sequence divergence. The conservation argues that these sets of transcripts are important to the function(s) ofHeT-A and TART.

Gene Conversion and Functional Divergence in the ?-Globin Gene Family

2004 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Aguileta ◽  
Joseph P. Bielawski ◽  
Ziheng Yang
Keyword(s):  
Gene Family ◽  
Gene Conversion ◽  
Functional Divergence ◽  
Globin Gene

Genome-Wide Analysis of the Globin Gene Family of C. elegans

IUBMB Life ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 56 (11) ◽  
pp. 697-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hoogewijs ◽  
Eva Geuens ◽  
Sylvia Dewilde ◽  
Luc Moens ◽  
Andy Vierstraete ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Family ◽  
Globin Gene ◽  
Genome Wide Analysis ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Genome Wide
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