Molecular evolution of the MAGUK family in metazoan genomes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Development, differentiation and physiology of metazoans all depend on cell to cell communication and subsequent intracellular signal transduction. Often, these processes are orchestrated via sites of specialized cell-cell contact and involve receptors, adhesion molecules and scaffolding proteins. Several of these scaffolding proteins important for synaptic and cellular junctions belong to the large family of membrane-associated guanylate kinases (MAGUK). In order to elucidate the origin and the evolutionary history of the MAGUKs we investigated full-length cDNA, EST and genomic sequences of species in major phyla.

Results

Our results indicate that at least four of the seven MAGUK subfamilies were present in early metazoan lineages, such as Porifera. We employed d

SUBMITTER: te Velthuis AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1978500 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature