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MBE Advance Access published online on March 7, 2007
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msm047
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© The Author 2007. 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 Article

Zebrafish Ribonucleases are Bactericidal: Implications for the Origin of the Vertebrate RNase A Superfamily

Soochin Cho and Jianzhi Zhang*

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

* Correspondence to: Jianzhi Zhang, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, 1075 Natural Science Building, 830 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Phone: 734-763-0527, Fax: 734-763-0544. Email: jianzhi{at}umich.edu

Received for publication January 29, 2007. Revision received March 1, 2007. Accepted for publication March 4, 2007.

Understanding the evolutionary origin of the ribonuclease (RNase) A superfamily is of great interest because the superfamily is the sole vertebrate-specific enzyme family known to date. Although mammalian RNases have a diverse array of biochemical and physiological functions, the original function of the superfamily at its birth is enigmatic. Such information may be obtained by studying basal lineages of the vertebrate phylogeny and is necessary for discerning how and why this superfamily originated. Here we clone and characterize three RNase genes from the zebrafish, the most basal vertebrate examined for RNases. We report (1) that all three zebrafish RNases are ribonucleolytically active, with one of them having an RNase activity comparable to that of bovine RNase A, the prototype of the superfamily, (2) that two zebrafish RNases have prominent expressions in adult liver and gut, while the third is expressed in adult eye and heart, and (3) that all three RNases have antibacterial activities in vitro. These results, together with the presence of antibacterial and/or antiviral activities in multiple distantly related mammalian RNases, strongly suggest that the superfamily started as a host-defense mechanism in vertebrate evolution.


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