Amino Acid Frequency in the Proteome Is Not Associated With Realised Thermal Limit nor Dietary Niche Breadth in 35 Lepidoptera Species.

ABSTRACT: Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins that perform essential physiological functions. Theory suggests that the proteome composition-the amino acid frequencies across all proteins in a genome-is associated with an organism's optimal growth temperature, offering insights into species' temperature limits. This hypothesis, however, is largely based on prokaryotic models and has not been thoroughly tested in complex multicellular eukaryotes, where many amino acids must be acquired through diet. Here, we integrated multiple databases and analysed amino acid frequencies in the proteomes of orthologous and non-orthologous genes from 35 Lepidoptera species to test for correlations with maximum observed temperatures and diet breadth. Using a robust phylogenetic comparative approach, we fou

SUBMITTER: Caron FS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12675941 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature