Horizontal transfer of vertebrate vision gene IRBP into the chordate ancestor.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Redmond AK
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10450429 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Horizontal transfer of vertebrate vision gene <i>IRBP</i> into the chordate ancestor.
Redmond Anthony K AK McLysaght Aoife A
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20230814 34
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Project description:BackgroundThe T-box family transcription-factor gene, Brachyury, has two expression domains with discrete functions during animal embryogenesis. The primary domain, associated with the blastopore, is shared by most metazoans, while the secondary domain, involved in the notochord, is specific to chordates. In most animals, Brachyury is present in a single copy, but in cephalochordates, the most basal of the chordates, the gene is present in two copies, suggesting allotment of the two domains to each of the duplicates.ResultsIn order to clarify whether Brachyury duplication occurred in the common ancestor of chordates after which one of duplicates was lost in the urochordate and vertebrate lineages, we estimated phylogenetic relationships of Brachyury genes and examined the synteny of a Brachyury-containing genomic region of deuterostomes with decoded genomes. The monophyletic origin of tandemly arranged Brachyury genes of cephalochordates indicates that the tandem duplication occurred in the cephalochordate lineage, but not in the chordate ancestor.ConclusionsOur results thus suggest that, in the common ancestor of chordates, a single copy of Brachyury acquired two expression domains and that the duplication was not involved in the acquisition of the notochord. However, in relation to regulatory mechanisms, both possibilities-namely a single copy with two domains and two copies with different domains-should be considered in future studies of Brachyury.
| S-EPMC5363035 | biostudies-literature