Ether-a-go-go family voltage-gated K+ channels evolved in an ancestral metazoan and functionally diversified in a cnidarian-bilaterian ancestor.

ABSTRACT: We examined the evolutionary origins of the ether-à-go-go (EAG) family of voltage-gated K(+) channels, which have a strong influence on the excitability of neurons. The bilaterian EAG family comprises three gene subfamilies (Eag, Erg and Elk) distinguished by sequence conservation and functional properties. Searches of genome sequence indicate that EAG channels are metazoan specific, appearing first in ctenophores. However, phylogenetic analysis including two EAG family channels from the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi indicates that the diversification of the Eag, Erg and Elk gene subfamilies occurred in a cnidarian/bilaterian ancestor after divergence from ctenophores. Erg channel function is highly conserved between cnidarians and mammals. Here we show that Eag and Elk channels from the se

SUBMITTER: Li X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4334144 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature