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MBE Advance Access published online on November 30, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution, 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
Accepted November 15, 2006

Research Article

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

J. Ignasi Lucas 1 and Ignacio Marín 1 *

1 Departamento de Genética, Universidad de Valencia, Burjassot, Spain

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Ignacio Marín, E-mail: ignacio.marin{at}uv.es


  Abstract

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 five of the six 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.


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