Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 15, 1099-1107, Copyright © 1998 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
WJ Gallin
The cadherins are major mediators of calcium-dependent cell-cell adhesion
and are also involved in cell signaling pathways during development. The
classical cadherins, which are the definitive group of the cadherin
superfamily, are transmembrane proteins that consist of an extracellular
domain of five cadherin repeats, including an HAV tripeptide conserved in
one binding surface within the first domain, and a highly conserved
cytoplasmic domain that interacts with the actin cytoskeleton via the
catenin proteins. These cadherins play major roles in vertebrate
morphogenesis; they are expressed widely throughout development, antibodies
to specific cadherins perturb a variety of developmental processes, and
many gene knockouts are lethal at early stages of development. Phylogenetic
analysis of the "classical" cadherins shows that in the vertebrates there
are four paralog families. The rate of evolutionary change is radically
different between the different paralogs, indicating that there are
significantly different selection pressures on the functions of the various
cadherins, both between the different paralogs in a single organism lineage
and between different organism lineages within a single paralog family.
There is also evidence for gene conversion between the E- cadherin and
P-cadherin paralogs in Gallus gallus and possibly Xenopus laevis, but not
between the same paralogs in the mammalian lineages. A scheme for the
origin of the paralogs within the vertebrate lineage based on these
analyses indicates that the presence of the four paralog families is a
characteristic of vertebrates and that variation of cadherin structure and
function is a significant factor in morphological evolution of vertebrates.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Evolution of the "classical" cadherin family of cell adhesion molecules in vertebrates
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. wgallin@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca
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