Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1 gene (Pck1) displays parallel evolution between Old World and New World fruit bats.

ABSTRACT: Bats are an ideal mammalian group for exploring adaptations to fasting due to their large variety of diets and because fasting is a regular part of their life cycle. Mammals fed on a carbohydrate-rich diet experience a rapid decrease in blood glucose levels during a fast, thus, the development of mechanisms to resist the consequences of regular fasts, experienced on a daily basis, must have been crucial in the evolution of frugivorous bats. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1 (PEPCK1, encoded by the Pck1 gene) is the rate-limiting enzyme in gluconeogenesis and is largely responsible for the maintenance of glucose homeostasis during fasting in fruit-eating bats. To test whether Pck1 has experienced adaptive evolution in frugivorous bats, we obtained Pck1 coding sequence from 20 species of b

SUBMITTER: Zhu L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4373879 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature