title: Evolutionary analysis of Antarctic teleost Toll-like receptor 2.
abstract: In the present study we address the investigation of TLR2 evolutionary selection in two Antarctic teleosts, Trematomus bernacchii (Nototheniidae) and Chionodraco hamatus (Channichthyidae). The nucleotide sequence of TLR2 has been determined in both species, encoding 20 leucine-rich repeats (LRRs) in the extracellular region and a classical Toll/IL-1R (TIR) domain in the intracellular region. High expression level of T. bernacchii TLR2 was found in spleen and skin. Using different methods we identified six codons that underwent Darwinian selection while 20 were found to be negatively selected. Molecular models of C. hamatus and T. bernacchii TLR2 ectodomain as well as of the TIR domain were built by Homology Modeling. Molecular Dynamics simulations were performed in water for 15 ns. The sites under positive selection were residing on the convex side of the solenoid, four out of six were in a 35-residue-long region including the central/N-terminal domain boundary: two in the external loop of LRR11 and the other two in the LRR12 loop. This region has been demonstrated to be the functional site of ligand interaction in human TLR2 structure. Antarctic TLR2 models showed more flexibility than TLR2 from the temperate species Gasterosteus aculeatus. These results suggest that the selective pressure has shaped TLR2 molecule in such a way that increased its activity under the peculiar Antarctic environmental conditions.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Protein Biochemistry, CNR, Naples, Italy. s.varriale@ibp.cnr.it
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Varriale
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferraresso
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Giacomelli
authors.forename: Maria Rosaria
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Coscia
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bargelloni
authors.forename: Umberto
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Oreste
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D001483:Base Sequence; D019295:Computational Biology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008958:Models, Molecular; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000235:genetics; D010473:Perciformes / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011487:Protein Conformation; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020449:Repetitive Sequences, Amino Acid / Q000235:genetics; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity; D051195:Toll-Like Receptor 2 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D009841:Oligonucleotides; D051195:Toll-Like Receptor 2