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MBE Advance Access originally published online on September 4, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2008 25(11):2369-2389; doi:10.1093/molbev/msn197
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© The Author 2008. 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

Intraphylum Diversity and Complex Evolution of Cyanobacterial Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases

Ignacio Luque*,1, María Loreto Riera-Alberola*, Alfonso Andújar* and Jesús A. G. Ochoa de Alda{dagger},1

* Instituto de Bioquímica Vegetal y Fotosíntesis, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and Universidad de Sevilla, Avda Américo Vespucio, Seville, Spain
{dagger} Departamento de Biología Molecular y Celular, IE Universidad, Campus de Santa Cruz la Real, C/Cardenal Zúñiga, Segovia, Spain

E-mail: ignacio.luque{at}ibvf.csic.es.

Accepted for publication August 6, 2008.

A comparative genomic analysis of 35 cyanobacterial strains has revealed that the gene complement of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARSs) and routes for aminoacyl-tRNA synthesis may differ among the species of this phylum. Several genes encoding AARS paralogues were identified in some genomes. In-depth phylogenetic analysis was done for each of these proteins to gain insight into their evolutionary history. GluRS, HisRS, ArgRS, ThrRS, CysRS, and Glu-Q-RS showed evidence of a complex evolutionary course as indicated by a number of inconsistencies with our reference tree for cyanobacterial phylogeny. In addition to sequence data, support for evolutionary hypotheses involving horizontal gene transfer or gene duplication events was obtained from other observations including biased sequence conservation, the presence of indels (insertions or deletions), or vestigial traces of ancestral redundant genes. We present evidences for a novel protein domain with two putative transmembrane helices recruited independently by distinct AARS in particular cyanobacteria.

Key Words: aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase • cyanobacteria • horizontal gene transfer • gene duplication • domain shuffling • phylogeny

1 These two authors contributed equally.

Laura Katz, Associate Editor


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