Subfunctionalization of Paralogous Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptors from the Frog Xenopus Laevis: Distinct Target Genes and Differential Responses to Specific Agonists in a Single Cell Type.

ABSTRACT: Gene duplication confers genetic redundancy that can facilitate subfunctionalization, the partitioning of ancestral functions between paralogs. We capitalize on a recent genome duplication in Xenopus laevis (African clawed frog) to interrogate possible functional differentiation between alloalleles of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), a ligand-activated transcription factor that mediates toxicity of dioxin-like compounds and plays a role in the physiology and development of the cardiovascular, hepatic, and immune systems in vertebrates. X. laevis has 2 AHR genes, AHR1α and AHR1β To test the hypothesis that the encoded proteins exhibit different molecular functions, we used TALENs in XLK-WG cells, generating mutant lines lacking functional versions of each AHR and measuring the transcrip

SUBMITTER: Freeburg SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5291211 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature