title: Genome-wide comparison of ferritin family from Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya, and Viruses: its distribution, characteristic motif, and phylogenetic relationship.
abstract: Ferritins are highly conserved proteins that are widely distributed in various species from archaea to humans. The ubiquitous characteristic of these proteins reflects the pivotal contribution of ferritins to the safe storage and timely delivery of iron to achieve iron homeostasis. This study investigated the ferritin genes in 248 genomes from various species, including viruses, archaea, bacteria, and eukarya. The distribution comparison suggests that mammals and eudicots possess abundant ferritin genes, whereas fungi contain very few ferritin genes. Archaea and bacteria show considerable numbers of ferritin genes. Generally, prokaryotes possess three types of ferritin (the typical ferritin, bacterioferritin, and DNA-binding protein from starved cell), whereas eukaryotes have various subunit types of ferritin, thereby indicating the individuation of the ferritin family during evolution. The characteristic motif analysis of ferritins suggested that all key residues specifying the unique structural motifs of ferritin are highly conserved across three domains of life. Meanwhile, the characteristic motifs were also distinguishable between ferritin groups, especially phytoferritins, which show a plant-specific motif. The phylogenetic analyses show that ferritins within the same subfamily or subunits are generally clustered together. The phylogenetic relationships among ferritin members suggest that both gene duplication and horizontal transfer contribute to the wide variety of ferritins, and their possible evolutionary scenario was also proposed. The results contribute to a better understanding of the distribution, characteristic motif, and evolutionary relationship of the ferritin family.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pig Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
authors.forename: Lina
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pig Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
authors.forename: Qingqing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pig Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
authors.forename: Changyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Pig Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture and Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. zhengrong@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: College of Food Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. chenwanping@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Wanping
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000818:Animals; D001105:Archaea / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005293:Ferritins / Q000235:genetics*; D016678:Genome / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D005293:Ferritins
keywords: Bacterioferritin; Characteristic motif; Evolution; Ferritin; Phytoferritin