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Characterization of two avian MHC-like genes reveals an ancient origin of the CD1 family.

ABSTRACT: Many of the genes that comprise the vertebrate adaptive immune system are conserved across wide evolutionary time scales. Most notably, homologs of the mammalian MHC gene family have been found in virtually all jawed vertebrates, including sharks, bony fishes, reptiles, and birds. The CD1 family of antigen-presenting molecules are related to the MHC class I family but have evolved to bind and present lipid antigens to T cells. Here, we describe two highly divergent nonclassical MHC class I genes found in the chicken (Gallus gallus) that have sequence homology to the mammalian CD1 family of proteins. One of the chicken CD1 genes expresses a full-length transcript, whereas the other has multiple splice variants. Both Southern blot and single nucleotide polymorphism analysis indicates that chicken CD1 is relatively nonpolymorphic. Moreover, cross-hybridizing bands are present in other bird species, suggesting broad conservation in the avian class. Northern analysis of chicken tissue shows a high level of CD1 expression in the bursa and spleen. In addition, molecular modeling predicts that the potential antigen-binding pocket is probably hydrophobic, a universal characteristic of CD1 molecules. Genomic analysis indicates that the CD1 genes are located on chicken chromosome 16 and maps to within 200 kb of the chicken MHC B locus, suggesting that CD1 genes diverged from classical MHC genes while still linked to the major histocompatibility complex locus. The existence of CD1 genes in an avian species suggests that the origin of CD1 extends deep into the evolutionary history of terrestrial vertebrates.

SUBMITTER: Miller MM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1150814 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Characterization of two avian MHC-like genes reveals an ancient origin of the CD1 family.

Miller Marcia M MM Wang Carren C Parisini Emilio E Coletta Ricardo D RD Goto Ronald M RM Lee Stella Y SY Barral Duarte C DC Townes Maria M Roura-Mir Carme C Ford Heide L HL Brenner Michael B MB Dascher Christopher C CC

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20050606 24

Many of the genes that comprise the vertebrate adaptive immune system are conserved across wide evolutionary time scales. Most notably, homologs of the mammalian MHC gene family have been found in virtually all jawed vertebrates, including sharks, bony fishes, reptiles, and birds. The CD1 family of antigen-presenting molecules are related to the MHC class I family but have evolved to bind and present lipid antigens to T cells. Here, we describe two highly divergent nonclassical MHC class I genes ...[more]

PMID: 15939884

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Project description:BACKGROUND: Euglenophyta and Chlorarachniophyta are groups of photosynthetic eukaryotes harboring secondary plastids of distinct green algal origins. Although previous phylogenetic analyses of genes encoding Calvin cycle enzymes demonstrated the presence of genes apparently not derived from green algal endosymbionts in the nuclear genomes of Euglena gracilis (Euglenophyta) and Bigelowiella natans (Chlorarachniophyta), the origins of these "non-green" genes in "green" secondary phototrophs were unclear due to the limited taxon sampling. RESULTS: Here, we sequenced five new phosphoribulokinase (PRK) genes (from one euglenophyte, two chlorarachniophytes, and two glaucophytes) and performed an extended phylogenetic analysis of the genes based on a phylum-wide taxon sampling from various photosynthetic eukaryotes. Our phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that the PRK sequences form two genera of Euglenophyta formed a robust monophyletic group within a large clade including stramenopiles, haptophytes and a cryptophyte, and three genera of Chlorarachniophyta were placed within the red algal clade. These "non-green" affiliations were supported by the taxon-specific insertion/deletion sequences in the PRK alignment, especially between euglenophytes and stramenopiles. In addition, phylogenetic analysis of another Calvin cycle enzyme, plastid-targeted sedoheptulose-bisphosphatase (SBP), showed that the SBP sequences from two genera of Chlorarachniophyta were positioned within a red algal clade. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that PRK genes may have been transferred from a "stramenopile" ancestor to Euglenophyta and from a "red algal" ancestor to Chlorarachniophyta before radiation of extant taxa of these two "green" secondary phototrophs. The presence of two of key Calvin cycle enzymes, PRK and SBP, of red algal origins in Chlorarachniophyta indicate that the contribution of "non-green" algae to the plastid proteome in the "green" secondary phototrophs is more significant than ever thought. These "non-green" putative plastid-targeted enzymes from Chlorarachniophyta are likely to have originated from an ancestral red alga via horizontal gene transfer, or from a cryptic red algal endosymbiosis in the common ancestor of the extant chlorarachniophytes.

Project description:BackgroundStomatin is a membrane protein that was first isolated from human red blood cells. Since then, a number of stomatin-like proteins have been identified in all three domains of life. The conservation among these proteins is remarkable, with bacterial and human homologs sharing 50 % identity. Despite being associated with a variety of diseases such as cancer, kidney failure and anaemia, precise functions of these proteins remain unclear.ResultsWe have constructed a comprehensive phylogeny of all 'stomatin-like' sequences that share a 150 amino acid domain. We show these proteins comprise an ancient family that arose early in prokaryotic evolution, and we propose a new nomenclature that reflects their phylogeny, based on the name "slipin" (stomatin-like protein). Within prokaryotes there are two distinct subfamilies that account for the two different origins of the eight eukaryotic stomatin subfamilies, one of which gave rise to eukaryotic SLP-2, renamed here "paraslipin". This was apparently acquired through the mitochondrial endosymbiosis and is widely distributed amongst the major kingdoms. The other prokaryotic subfamily gave rise to the ancestor of the remaining seven eukaryotic subfamilies. The highly diverged "alloslipin" subfamily is represented only by fungal, viral and ciliate sequences. The remaining six subfamilies, collectively termed "slipins", are confined to metazoa. Protostome stomatin, as well as a newly reported arthropod subfamily slipin-4, are restricted to invertebrate groups, whilst slipin-1 (previously SLP-1) is present in nematodes and higher metazoa. In vertebrates, the stomatin family expanded considerably, with at least two duplication events giving rise to podocin and slipin-3 subfamilies (previously SLP-3), with the retained ancestral sequence giving rise to vertebrate stomatin.ConclusionStomatin-like proteins have their origin in an ancient duplication event that occurred early on in the evolution of prokaryotes. By constructing a phylogeny of this family, we have identified and named a number of orthologous groups: these can now be used to infer function of stomatin subfamilies in a meaningful way.

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Characterization of two avian MHC-like genes reveals an ancient origin of the CD1 family.

Publications

Characterization of two avian MHC-like genes reveals an ancient origin of the CD1 family.

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