Evolution of new protein function: recombinational enhancer Fis originated by horizontal gene transfer from the transcriptional regulator NtrC

FEBS Letters

Bork, Peer²  Morett, Enrique¹ 

[1] Instituto de Biotecnologı́a, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 510-3 Cuernavaca, Mor., Mexico;European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

关键词: Protein evolution;    Phylogenetic analysis;    Enhancer-binding protein;   

DOI  :  10.1016/S0014-5793(98)00888-6

学科分类：生物化学/生物物理

来源: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

【 摘 要 】

New protein function is thought to evolve mostly by gene duplication and divergence. Here we present phylogenetic evidence that the multifunctional protein Fis of the γ proteobacterial species derived from the COOH-terminal domain of an ancestral α proteobacterial NtrC transcriptional regulatory protein. All of the known enterobacterial fis genes are preceded by an open reading frame, named yhdG, that is highly similar to nifR3, a gene that forms an operon with ntrC in several α proteobacterial species. Thus, we propose that yhdG and fis were acquired by a lineage ancestral to the γ proteobacteria in a single horizontal gene transfer event, and later diverged to their present functions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown