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Parallel functional changes in independent testis-specific duplicates of Aldehyde dehydrogenase in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: A large proportion of duplicates, originating from ubiquitously expressed genes, acquire testis-biased expression. Identifying the underlying cause of this observation requires determining whether the duplicates have altered functions relative to the parental genes. Typically, statistical methods are used to test for positive selection, signature of which in protein sequence of duplicates implies functional divergence. When assumptions are violated, however, such tests can lead to false inference of positive selection. More convincing evidence for naturally selected functional changes would be the occurrence of structural changes with similar functional consequences in independent duplicates of the same gene. We investigated two testis-specific duplicates of the broadly expressed enzyme gene Aldehyde dehydrogenase (Aldh) that arose in different Drosophila lineages. The duplicates show a typical pattern of accelerated amino acid substitutions relative to their broadly expressed paralogs, with statistical evidence for positive selection in both cases. Importantly, in both duplicates, width of the entrance to the substrate binding site, known a priori to influence substrate specificity, and otherwise conserved throughout the genus Drosophila, has been reduced, resulting in narrowing of the entrance. Protein structure modeling suggests that the reduction of the size of the enzyme's substrate entry channel, which is likely to shift substrate specificity toward smaller aldehydes, is accounted for by the positively selected parallel substitutions in one duplicate but not the other. Evolution of the testis-specific duplicates was accompanied by reduction in expression of the ancestral Aldh in males, supporting the hypothesis that the duplicates may have helped resolve intralocus sexual conflict over Aldh function.

SUBMITTER: Chakraborty M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4379408 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Parallel functional changes in independent testis-specific duplicates of Aldehyde dehydrogenase in Drosophila.

Chakraborty Mahul M Fry James D JD

Molecular biology and evolution 20150105 4

A large proportion of duplicates, originating from ubiquitously expressed genes, acquire testis-biased expression. Identifying the underlying cause of this observation requires determining whether the duplicates have altered functions relative to the parental genes. Typically, statistical methods are used to test for positive selection, signature of which in protein sequence of duplicates implies functional divergence. When assumptions are violated, however, such tests can lead to false inferenc ...[more]

PMID: 25564519

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Project description:Drosophila alcohol dehydrogenase (Adh) catalyses the oxidation of both alcohols and aldehydes. In the latter case, the oxidation is followed by a reduction of the aldehyde, i.e. a dismutation reaction. At high pH, dismutation is accompanied by a small release of NADH, which is not observed at neutral pH. Previously it has been emphasized that kinetic coefficients obtained by measuring the increase in A340, i.e. the release of NADH at high pH is not a direct measure of the aldehyde oxidation reaction and these values cannot be compared with those for alcohol dehydrogenation. In this article we demonstrate that this is not entirely true, and that the coefficients phiB and phiAB, where B is the aldehyde and A is NAD+, are the same for a dismutation reaction and a simple aldehyde dehydrogenase reaction. Thus the substrate specificity of the aldehyde oxidation reaction can be determined by simply measuring the NADH release. The coefficients for oxidation and dehydrogenation reactions (phi0d and phiAd respectively) are complex and involve the constants for the dismutation reaction. However, dead-end inhibitors can be used to determine the quantitative contribution of the kinetic constants for the aldehyde oxidation and reduction pathways to the phi0d and phiAd coefficients. The combination of dead-end and product inhibitors can be used to determine the reaction mechanism for the aldehyde oxidation pathway. Previously, we showed that with Drosophila Adh, the interconversion between alcohols and aldehydes followed a strictly compulsory ordered pathway, although aldehydes and ketones formed binary complexes with the enzyme. This raised the question regarding the reaction mechanism for the oxidation of aldehydes, i.e. whether a random ordered pathway was followed. In the present work, the mechanism for the oxidation of different aldehydes and the accompanying dismutation reaction with the slow alleloenzyme (AdhS) from Drosophila melanogaster has been studied. To obtain reliable results for the liberation of NADH during the initial-rate phase, the reaction was measured with a sensitive recording filter fluorimeter, and the complexes formed with the different dead-end and product inhibitors have been interpreted on the basis of a full dismutation reaction. The results are only consistent with a compulsory ordered reaction mechanism, with the formation of a dead-end binary enzyme-aldehyde complex. Under initial-velocity conditions, the rate of acetate release was calculated to be larger than 2.5 s-1, which is more than ten times that of NADH. The substrate specificity constant (kcat/Km or 1/phiB) with respect to the oxidation of substrates was propan-2-ol>ethanol>acetaldehyde>trimethylacetaldehyde.

Dataset Information

Parallel functional changes in independent testis-specific duplicates of Aldehyde dehydrogenase in Drosophila.

Publications

Parallel functional changes in independent testis-specific duplicates of Aldehyde dehydrogenase in Drosophila.

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