Project description:Molecular phylogenomics investigates evolutionary relationships based on genomic data. However, despite genomic sequence conservation, changes in protein interactions can occur relatively rapidly and may cause strong functional diversification. To investigate such functional evolution, we here combine phylogenomics with interaction proteomics. We develop this concept by investigating the molecular evolution of the shelterin complex, which protects telomeres, across 16 vertebrate species from zebrafish to humans covering 450 million years of evolution. Our phylointeractomics screen discovers previously unknown telomere-associated proteins and reveals how homologous proteins undergo functional evolution. For instance, we show that TERF1 evolved as a telomere-binding protein in the common stem lineage of marsupial and placental mammals. Phylointeractomics is a versatile and scalable approach to investigate evolutionary changes in protein function and thus can provide experimental evidence for phylogenomic relationships.
Project description:MAF from pika Epas1-3FLAG knock-in mice were extracted and immortalized. After 12h DMOG treatment, cells were conducted for the ChIP-seq (Bmal1,Flag). We found that in knock-in mice fibroblasts, EPAS1-3FLAG can bind to similar E-box locus compared with BMAL1. Fibroblasts from mouse, rat, rabbit and Tibetan pika were extracted (and Tibetan pika fibroblasts were immortalized). RNA was extracted at 90% confluency. We found that Per2 mRNA level was significantly lower in Tibetan pika fibroblasts compared with other species.
