Amino acid sequence coevolution in the insect bursicon ligand-receptor system.

ABSTRACT: The pattern of amino acid residue replacement in the components of the bursicon signaling system (involving the BURSα/BURSβ heterodimer and its receptor BURSrec) was reconstructed across a phylogeny of 17 insect species, in order to test for the co-occurrence of replacements at sets of individual sites. Sets of three or more branches with perfectly concordant changes occurred to a greater extent than expected by chance, given the observed level of amino acid change. The latter sites (SPC sites) were found to have distinctive characteristics: (1) the mean number of changes was significantly lower at SPC sites than that at other sites with multiple changes; (2) SPC sites had a significantly greater tendency toward parallel amino acid changes than other sites with multiple changes, but no gre

SUBMITTER: Hughes AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3427790 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature