title: Variations in the sequences of BMP2 imply different mechanisms for the evolution of morphological diversity in vertebrates.
abstract: Bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) plays an important role in skeletogenesis, osteoblastic differentiation and limb patterning. Its protein coding region consists of the signal peptide, the pro-domain (that regulates post-translational control of synthesis) and the mature domain (that carries out gene function). This gene has been considered previously to be conserved. By re-analyzing the coding region of BMP2 in 31 species of vertebrates, we found that the mature domain region is indeed conserved in mammals, but not among non-mammalian taxa. Moreover, compared to the mature domain, the signal peptide and pro-domain have experienced dramatic variation in all vertebrates. Six amino acid sites in the pro-domain were identified to be under diversifying Darwinian selection in mammals. These results indicate that the signal peptide and pro-domain of BMP2 may be involved in skeletal poly-morphology during mammal evolution and the mature domain may also contribute to this function in non-mammals. This supports the hypothesis that morphological variations in mammals result mainly from a change in post-translational control of synthesis, whereas in non-mammals they result mainly from gene functional change.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lihong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Xueguo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zuo
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Racey
authors.forename: Shuyi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008322:Mammals / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2