Ancient animal ancestry for nuclear myosin.

ABSTRACT: The identification of nuclear myosin I (NMI) has raised the possibility that myosin might have had an early functional role in the eukaryotic nucleus. To investigate this possibility, we examined the molecular evolution of the vertebrate myosin-I proteins. We found that myosin I has undergone at least five duplication events in the common ancestor of the vertebrates (vertebrate-specific duplications), leading to nine myosin-I vertebrate gene families, followed by two additional myosin-I duplication events in the lineage leading to modern fish. This expansion suggests a large-scale adaptive radiation in myosin-I function in an early phase of vertebrate evolution. The branching order of the evolutionary tree suggests that the functional role of NMI predates this expansion. More specifically,

SUBMITTER: Hofmann WA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2720919 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature