Expansion of tandem repeats in sea anemone Nematostella vectensis proteome: A source for gene novelty?

ABSTRACT:

Background

The complete proteome of the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, provides insights into gene invention dating back to the Cnidarian-Bilaterian ancestor. With the addition of the complete proteomes of Hydra magnipapillata and Monosiga brevicollis, the investigation of proteins having unique features in early metazoan life has become practical. We focused on the properties and the evolutionary trends of tandem repeat (TR) sequences in Cnidaria proteomes.

Results

We found that 11-16% of N. vectensis proteins contain tandem repeats. Most TRs cover 150 amino acid segments that are comprised of basic units of 5-20 amino acids. In total, the N. Vectensis proteome has about 3300 unique TR-units, but only a small fraction of them are shared with H. magnipapillata,

SUBMITTER: Naamati G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2805694 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature