Multisubstrate specificity shaped the complex evolution of the aminotransferase family across the tree of life.

ABSTRACT: Aminotransferases (ATs) are an ancient enzyme family that play central roles in core nitrogen metabolism, essential to all organisms. However, many of the AT enzyme functions remain poorly defined, limiting our fundamental understanding of the nitrogen metabolic networks that exist in different organisms. Here, we traced the deep evolutionary history of the AT family by analyzing AT enzymes from 90 species spanning the tree of life (ToL). We found that each organism has maintained a relatively small and constant number of ATs. Mapping the distribution of ATs across the ToL uncovered that many essential AT reactions are carried out by taxon-specific AT enzymes due to wide-spread nonorthologous gene displacements. This complex evolutionary history explains the difficulty of homology-based AT

SUBMITTER: Koper K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11214133 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature