Amino acid composition in endothermic vertebrates is biased in the same direction as in thermophilic prokaryotes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Among bacteria and archaea, amino acid usage is correlated with habitat temperatures. In particular, protein surfaces in species thriving at higher temperatures appear to be enriched in amino acids that stabilize protein structure and depleted in amino acids that decrease thermostability. Does this observation reflect a causal relationship, or could the apparent trend be caused by phylogenetic relatedness among sampled organisms living at different temperatures? And do proteins from endothermic and exothermic vertebrates show similar differences?

Results

We find that the observed correlations between the frequencies of individual amino acids and prokaryotic habitat temperature are strongly influenced by evolutionary relatedness between the species analysed; howeve

SUBMITTER: Wang GZ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2939578 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature