Rapidly diverging evolution of an atypical alkaline phosphatase (PhoA(aty)) in marine phytoplankton: insights from dinoflagellate alkaline phosphatases.

ABSTRACT: Alkaline phosphatase (AP) is a key enzyme that enables marine phytoplankton to scavenge phosphorus (P) from dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) when inorganic phosphate is scarce in the ocean. Yet how the AP gene has evolved in phytoplankton, particularly dinoflagellates, is poorly understood. We sequenced full-length AP genes and corresponding complementary DNA (cDNA) from 15 strains (10 species), representing four classes of the core dinoflagellate lineage, Gymnodiniales, Prorocentrales, Suessiales, and Gonyaulacales. Dinoflagellate AP gene sequences exhibited high variability, containing variable introns, pseudogenes, single nucleotide polymorphisms and consequent variations in amino acid sequence, indicative of gene duplication events and consistent with the "birth-and-death" model of g

SUBMITTER: Lin X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4548154 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature