title: Structure and evolution of tropomyosin genes.
abstract: Tropomyosins constitute a family of highly related actin-binding proteins found in the animal kingdom from yeast to human. In vertebrates, they are encoded by a multigene family where each member can produce several isoforms through alternative splicing and for some of them with alternate promoters. Tropomyosin isoform diversity has considerably increased during evolution from invertebrates to vertebrates and stems from the duplication of ancestral genes. The advance ofgenomic sequence information on various animals has expanded our knowledge on the structure of tropomyosin genes in different phyla and subphyla. We present the organisation of tropomyosin genes in different major phyla and the phylogenetic comparison of their structure highlights the evolution of this multigene family.
authors.affiliation: Oncology Research Unit The Children's Hospital at Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vrhovski
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thézé
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thiébaud
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D013045:Species Specificity; D014335:Tropomyosin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D014335:Tropomyosin