Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 16, 383-396, Copyright © 1999 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
R Duncan, MA Faggart, AJ Roger and NW Cornell
The evolution of 5-aminolevulinate synthase (ALS) was studied by acquiring
sequence data and generating phylogenetic trees. Gene sequences were
already available for a variety of vertebrates (which have both a
housekeeping and an erythroid form of the gene), fungi,
alpha-proteobacteria, and one protist and one protostome. In order to
generate representative trees, ALS sequence data were acquired from various
deuterostomes and protostomes. The species and tissues selected for study
were beluga whale liver, hagfish blood, sea urchin gonadal tissue,
cuttlefish hepatopancreas, horseshoe crab hepatopancreas, and bloodworm
blood. The new sequences and those previously published were examined for
the presence of heme-regulatory motifs (HRMs) and iron- responsive elements
(IREs). The HRMs are present in almost all eukaryotic species, which
suggests their fundamental role in the regulation of ALS. The IREs are
present in all vertebrate erythroid forms of ALS, which indicates that in
those animals, expression of the erythroid form of the enzyme and, hence,
hemoglobin production can be influenced by the intracellular content of
iron. The new sequences were aligned with previously reported ALS
sequences, and phylogenetic analyses were performed. The resulting trees
provided evidence regarding the timing of the gene duplication event that
led to the two forms of the ALS gene in vertebrates. It appears that the
housekeeping and erythroid forms of ALS probably arose before the
divergence of hagfish from the deuterostome line leading to the
vertebrates. The data also add to the evidence indicating that
alpha-proteobacteria are the nearest contemporary relatives of
mitochondria.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Phylogenetic analysis of the 5-aminolevulinate synthase gene [published erratum appears in Mol Biol Evol 1999 Jun;16(6):following 883]
Bay Paul Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA.
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