Conservation of Three-Dimensional Structure of Lepidoptera and Trichoptera L-Fibroins for 290 Million Years.

ABSTRACT: The divergence of sister orders Trichoptera (caddisflies) and Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) from a silk-spinning ancestor occurred around 290 million years ago. Trichoptera larvae are mainly aquatic, and Lepidoptera larvae are almost entirely terrestrial-distinct habitats that required molecular adaptation of their silk for deployment in water and air, respectively. The major protein components of their silks are heavy chain and light chain fibroins. In an effort to identify molecular changes in L-fibroins that may have contributed to the divergent use of silk in water and air, we used the ColabFold implementation of AlphaFold2 to predict three-dimensional structures of L-fibroins from both orders. A comparison of the structures revealed that despite the ancient divergence, profoundl

SUBMITTER: Stewart RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9504780 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature