title: Evolution of cysteine patterns in the large extracellular loop of tetraspanins from animals, fungi, plants and single-celled eukaryotes.
abstract: By analyzing the evolution of cysteine patterns in the large extracellular loop (LEL) of tetraspanins across all eukaryotes, we report the following: (1) the origin of the cysteine-cysteine-glycine (CCG) motif in the common ancestor of unikonts (Animalia, fungi and amoebozoa); (2) tracing cysteine motifs on an eukaryotic phylogeny which includes protists, animals and plants match organismal evolution; (3) using this evolutionary approach we have determined some of the cysteines in these proteins that are involved in specific bonds in the LEL. Our study provides a framework to better understand tetraspanin formation, diversification and the evolutionary history of these important proteins.
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, USA. desalle@amnh.org
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: DeSalle
authors.forename: Roso
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mares
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garcia-España
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D003545:Cysteine / Q000235:genetics*; D057225:Data Mining; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins; D003545:Cysteine