Phylogenetic and sequence analyses of insect transferrins suggest that only transferrin 1 has a role in iron homeostasis.

ABSTRACT: Iron is essential to life, but surprisingly little is known about how iron is managed in nonvertebrate animals. In mammals, the well-characterized transferrins bind iron and are involved in iron transport or immunity, whereas other members of the transferrin family do not have a role in iron homeostasis. In insects, the functions of transferrins are still poorly understood. The goals of this project were to identify the transferrin genes in a diverse set of insect species, resolve the evolutionary relationships among these genes, and predict which of the transferrins are likely to have a role in iron homeostasis. Our phylogenetic analysis of transferrins from 16 orders of insects and two orders of noninsect hexapods demonstrated that there are four orthologous groups of insect transferrins

SUBMITTER: Najera DG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7668117 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature