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MBE Advance Access originally published online on November 30, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2007 24(2):551-561; doi:10.1093/molbev/msl186
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Research Articles

A New Evolutionary Paradigm for the Parkinson Disease Gene DJ-1

J. Ignasi Lucas and Ignacio Marín

Departamento de Genética, Universidad de Valencia, Burjassot, Spain

E-mail: ignacio.marin{at}uv.es.

Accepted for publication November 15, 2006.

The DJ-1 gene is extensively studied because of its involvement in familial Parkinson disease. DJ-1 belongs to a complex superfamily of genes that includes both prokaryotic and eukaryotic representatives. We determine that many prokaryotic groups, such as proteobacteria, cyanobacteria, spirochaetes, firmicutes, or fusobacteria, have genes, often incorrectly called "Thij," that are very close relatives of DJ-1, to the point that they cannot be clearly separated from the eukaryotic DJ-1 genes by phylogenetic analyses of their sequences. In addition, and contrary to a previous study that suggested that DJ-1 genes were animal specific, we show that DJ-1 genes are found in at least 5 of the 6 main eukaryotic groups: opisthokonta (both animals and fungi), plantae, chromalveolata, excavata, and amoebozoa. Our results thus provide strong evidence for DJ-1 genes originating before the origin of eukaryotes. Interestingly, we found that some fungal species, among them the model yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, have DJ-1–like genes, most likely orthologous to the animal genes. This finding opens new ways for the analysis of the functions of this group of genes.

Key Words: comparative genomics • Parkinson disease • DJ-1 domain

Claudia Schmidt-Dannert, Associate Editor


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