Origin and evolution of glutamyl-prolyl tRNA synthetase WHEP domains reveal evolutionary relationships within Holozoa.

ABSTRACT: Repeated domains in proteins that have undergone duplication or loss, and sequence divergence, are especially informative about phylogenetic relationships. We have exploited divergent repeats of the highly structured, 50-amino acid WHEP domains that join the catalytic subunits of bifunctional glutamyl-prolyl tRNA synthetase (EPRS) as a sequence-informed repeat (SIR) to trace the origin and evolution of EPRS in holozoa. EPRS is the only fused tRNA synthetase, with two distinct aminoacylation activities, and a non-canonical translation regulatory function mediated by the WHEP domains in the linker. Investigating the duplications, deletions and divergence of WHEP domains, we traced the bifunctional EPRS to choanozoans and identified the fusion event leading to its origin at the divergence of

SUBMITTER: Ray PS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4072531 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature