Comparative Analysis of Drosophila Bam and Bgcn Sequences and Predicted Protein Structural Evolution.

ABSTRACT: The protein encoded by the Drosophila melanogaster gene bag of marbles (bam) plays an essential role in early gametogenesis by complexing with the gene product of benign gonial cell neoplasm (bgcn) to promote germline stem cell daughter differentiation in males and females. Here, we compared the AlphaFold2 and AlphaFold Multimer predicted structures of Bam protein and the Bam:Bgcn protein complex between D. melanogaster, D. simulans, and D. yakuba, where bam is necessary in gametogenesis to that in D. teissieri, where it is not. Despite significant sequence divergence, we find very little evidence of significant structural differences in high confidence regions of the structures across the four species. This suggests that Bam structure is unlikely to be a direct cause of its functional dif

SUBMITTER: Arnce LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12006264 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature