title: Molecular evolution of phosphoprotein phosphatases in Drosophila.
abstract: Phosphoprotein phosphatases (PPP), these ancient and important regulatory enzymes are present in all eukaryotic organisms. Based on the genome sequences of 12 Drosophila species we traced the evolution of the PPP catalytic subunits and noted a substantial expansion of the gene family. We concluded that the 18-22 PPP genes of Drosophilidae were generated from a core set of 8 indispensable phosphatases that are present in most of the insects. Retropositons followed by tandem gene duplications extended the phosphatase repertoire, and sporadic gene losses contributed to the species specific variations in the PPP complement. During the course of these studies we identified 5, up till now uncharacterized phosphatase retrogenes: PpY+, PpD5+, PpD6+, Pp4+, and Pp6+ which are found only in some ancient Drosophila. We demonstrated that all of these new PPP genes exhibit a distinct male specific expression. In addition to the changes in gene numbers, the intron-exon structure and the chromosomal localization of several PPP genes was also altered during evolution. The G-C content of the coding regions decreased when a gene moved into the heterochromatic region of chromosome Y. Thus the PPP enzymes exemplify the various types of dynamic rearrangements that accompany the molecular evolution of a gene family in Drosophilidae.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biotechnology, Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
authors.forename: Márton
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miskei
authors.forename: Csaba
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ádám
authors.forename: László
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kovács
authors.forename: Zsolt
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Karányi
authors.forename: Viktor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dombrádi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020134:Catalytic Domain / Q000235:genetics; D004330:Drosophila / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D015321:Gene Rearrangement / Q000235:genetics; D017344:Genes, Insect / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D005810:Multigene Family / Q000235:genetics; D010749:Phosphoprotein Phosphatases / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D010749:Phosphoprotein Phosphatases