title: Evolution of the large secreted gel-forming mucins.
abstract: Mucins, the major component of mucus, contain tandemly repeated sequences that differ from one mucin to another. Considerable advances have been made in recent years in our knowledge of mucin genes. The availability of the complete genomic and cDNA sequences of MUC5B, one of the four human mucin genes clustered on chromosome 11, provides an exemplary model for studying the molecular evolution of large mucins. The emerging picture is one of expansion of mucin genes by gene duplications, followed by internal repeat expansion that strictly preserves frameshift. Computational and phylogenetic analyses have permitted the proposal of an evolutionary history of the four human mucin genes located on chromosome 11 from an ancestor gene common to the human von Willebrand factor gene and the suggestion of a model for the evolution of the repeat coding portion of the MUC5B gene from a hypothetical ancestral minigene. The characterization of MUC5B, a member of the large secreted gel-forming mucin family, offers a new model for the comparative study of the structure-function relationship within this important family.
authors.affiliation: Unité 377 INSERM, Lille, France. desseyn@lille.inserm.fr
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Desseyn
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Aubert
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Porchet
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laine
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D005796:Genes / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D055271:Mucin 5AC; D055257:Mucin-5B; D009077:Mucins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014841:von Willebrand Factor / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: C524678:MUC5AC protein, human; C524578:MUC5B protein, human; D055271:Mucin 5AC; D055257:Mucin-5B; D009077:Mucins; D014841:von Willebrand Factor