Integrative view of α2,3-sialyltransferases (ST3Gal) molecular and functional evolution in deuterostomes: significance of lineage-specific losses.

ABSTRACT: Sialyltransferases are responsible for the synthesis of a diverse range of sialoglycoconjugates predicted to be pivotal to deuterostomes' evolution. In this work, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of the metazoan α2,3-sialyltransferases family (ST3Gal), a subset of sialyltransferases encompassing six subfamilies (ST3Gal I-ST3Gal VI) functionally characterized in mammals. Exploration of genomic and expressed sequence tag databases and search of conserved sialylmotifs led to the identification of a large data set of st3gal-related gene sequences. Molecular phylogeny and large scale sequence similarity network analysis identified four new vertebrate subfamilies called ST3Gal III-r, ST3Gal VII, ST3Gal VIII, and ST3Gal IX. To address the issue of the origin and evolutionary relationship

SUBMITTER: Petit D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4379398 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature