title: An active second dihydrofolate reductase enzyme is not a feature of rat and mouse, but they do have activity in their mitochondria.
abstract: The identification of a second functional dihydrofolate reductase enzyme in humans, DHFRL1, led us to consider whether this is also a feature of rodents. We demonstrate that dihydrofolate reductase activity is also a feature of the mitochondria in both rat and mouse but this is not due to a second enzyme. While our phylogenetic analysis revealed that RNA-mediated DHFR duplication events did occur across the mammal tree, the duplicates in brown rat and mouse are likely to be processed pseudogenes. Humans have evolved the need for two separate enzymes while laboratory rats and mice have just one.
authors.affiliation: Nutritional Genomics Group, School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution Group, School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland; Centre for Scientific Computing and Complex Systems Modelling (SCI-SYM), Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Carton
authors.affiliation: Nutritional Genomics Group, School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Minguzzi
authors.affiliation: Nutritional Genomics Group, School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland.
authors.forename: Gráinne
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: McEntee
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Eva E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Deinum
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution Group, School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland; Centre for Scientific Computing and Complex Systems Modelling (SCI-SYM), Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland.
authors.forename: Mary J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: O'Connell
authors.affiliation: Nutritional Genomics Group, School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland. Electronic address: anne.parle-mcdermott@dcu.ie.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parle-McDermott
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D051379:Mice; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000201:enzymology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D051381:Rats; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013762:Tetrahydrofolate Dehydrogenase / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D013762:Tetrahydrofolate Dehydrogenase
keywords: Dihydrofolate reductase; Folic acid; Mitochondria; Mouse; R. norvegicus; R. rattus; Rat