title: Evolution of myelin proteolipid proteins: gene duplication in teleosts and expression pattern divergence.
abstract: The coevolution of neurons and their supporting glia to the highly specialized axon-myelin unit included the recruitment of proteolipids as neuronal glycoproteins (DMbeta, DMgamma) or myelin proteins (DMalpha/PLP/DM20). Consistent with a genome duplication at the root of teleosts, we identified three proteolipid pairs in zebrafish, termed DMalpha1 and DMalpha2, DMbeta1 and DMbeta2, DMgamma1 and DMgamma2. The paralogous amino acid sequences diverged remarkably after gene duplication, indicating functional specialization. Each proteolipid has adopted a distinct spatio-temporal expression pattern in neural progenitors, neurons, and in glia. DMalpha2, the closest homolog to mammalian PLP/DM20, is coexpressed with P0 in oligodendrocytes and upregulated after optic nerve lesion. DMgamma2 is expressed in multipotential stem cells, and the other four proteolipids are confined to subsets of CNS neurons. Comparing protein sequences and gene structures from birds, teleosts, one urochordate species, and four invertebrates, we have reconstructed major steps in the evolution of proteolipids.
authors.affiliation: Zentrum fuer Molekulare Neurobiologie, University of Hamburg, D-20251 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Jörn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schweitzer
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Melitta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schachner
authors.forename: Klaus-Armin
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Nave
authors.forename: Hauke
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Werner
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005399:Fishes / Q000235:genetics*; D020440:Gene Duplication; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016678:Genome; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018991:Myelin Proteolipid Protein / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015027:Zebrafish; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018991:Myelin Proteolipid Protein; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins