Origin, evolution and classification of type-3 copper proteins: lineage-specific gene expansions and losses across the Metazoa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Tyrosinases, tyrosinase-related proteins, catechol oxidases and hemocyanins comprise the type-3 copper protein family and are involved in a variety of biological processes, including pigment formation, innate immunity and oxygen transport. Although this family is present in the three domains of life, its origin and early evolution are not well understood. Previous analyses of type-3 copper proteins largely have focussed on specific animal and plant phyla.

Results

Here, we combine genomic, phylogenetic and structural analyses to show that the original type-3 copper protein possessed a signal peptide and may have been secreted (we designate proteins of this type the α subclass). This ancestral type-3 copper protein gene underwent two duplication events, the first pr

SUBMITTER: Aguilera F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3658974 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature