| 1. |
- Björklund, Åsa K., et al.
(author)
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Domain Rearrangements in Protein Evolution
- 2005
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In: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 353:4, s. 911-923
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Most eukaryotic proteins are multi-domain proteins that are created from fusions of genes, deletions and internal repetitions. An investigation of such evolutionary events requires a method to find the domain architecture from which each protein originates. Therefore, we defined a novel measure, domain distance, which is calculated as the number of domains that differ between two domain architectures. Using this measure the evolutionary events that distinguish a protein from its closest ancestor have been studied and it was found that indels are more common than internal repetition and that the exchange of a domain is rare. Indels and repetitions are common at both the N and C-terminals while they are rare between domains. The evolution of the majority of multi-domain proteins can be explained by the stepwise insertions of single domains, with the exception of repeats that sometimes are duplicated several domains in tandem. We show that domain distances agree with sequence similarity and semantic similarity based on gene ontology annotations. In addition, we demonstrate the use of the domain distance measure to build evolutionary trees. Finally, the evolution of multi-domain proteins is exemplified by a closer study of the evolution of two protein families, non-receptor tyrosine kinases and RhoGEFs.
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| 2. |
- Björklund, Åsa K., et al.
(author)
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Expansion of Protein Domain Repeats
- 2006
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In: PloS Computational Biology. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1553-734X .- 1553-7358. ; 2:8, s. 959-970
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Many proteins, especially in eukaryotes, contain tandem repeats of several domains from the same family. These repeats have a variety of binding properties and are involved in protein-protein interactions as well as binding to other ligands such as DNA and RNA. The rapid expansion of protein domain repeats is assumed to have evolved through internal tandem duplications. However, the exact mechanisms behind these tandem duplications are not well-understood. Here, we have studied the evolution, function, protein structure, gene structure, and phylogenetic distribution of domain repeats. For this purpose we have assigned Pfam-A domain families to 24 proteomes with more sensitive domain assignments in the repeat regions. These assignments confirmed previous findings that eukaryotes, and in particular vertebrates, contain a much higher fraction of proteins with repeats compared with prokaryotes. The internal sequence similarity in each protein revealed that the domain repeats are often expanded through duplications of several domains at a time, while the duplication of one domain is less common. Many of the repeats appear to have been duplicated in the middle of the repeat region. This is in strong contrast to the evolution of other proteins that mainly works through additions of single domains at either terminus. Further, we found that some domain families show distinct duplication patterns, e. g., nebulin domains have mainly been expanded with a unit of seven domains at a time, while duplications of other domain families involve varying numbers of domains. Finally, no common mechanism for the expansion of all repeats could be detected. We found that the duplication patterns show no dependence on the size of the domains. Further, repeat expansion in some families can possibly be explained by shuffling of exons. However, exon shuffling could not have created all repeats.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Ekman, Diana, 1977-
(author)
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Domain rearrangement and creation in protein evolution
- 2008
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Proteins are composed of domains, recurrent protein fragments with distinct structure, function and evolutionary history. Some domains exist only as single domain proteins, however, a majority of them are also combined with other domains. Domain rearrangements are important in the evolution of new proteins as new functionalities can arise in a single evolutionary event. In addition, the domain repertoire can be expanded through mutations of existing domains and de novo creation. The processes of domain rearrangement and creation have been the focus of this thesis.According to our estimates about 65% of the eukaryotic and 40% of the prokaryotic proteins are of multidomain type. We found that insertion of a single domain at the N- or C-terminus was the most common event in the creation of novel multidomain architectures. However, domain repeats deviate from this pattern and are often expanded through duplications of several domains. Next, by mapping domain combinations onto an evolutionary tree we estimated that roughly one domain architecture has been created per million years, with the highest rates in metazoa. Much of this so called explosion of new architectures in metazoa seems to be explained by a set of domains amenable to exon shuffling. In contrast to domain architectures, most known domain families evolved early. However, many proteins have incomplete domain coverage, and could hence contain de novo created domains. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, however, species specific sequences constitute only a minor fraction of the proteome, and are often short, disordered sequences located at the protein termini.
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| 5. |
- Ekman, Diana, et al.
(author)
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Identifying and Quantifying Orphan Protein Sequences in Fungi
- 2010
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In: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 396:2, s. 396-405
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- For large regions of many proteins, and even entire proteins, no homology to known domains or proteins can be detected. These sequences are often referred to as orphans. Surprisingly, it has been reported that the large number of orphans is sustained in spite of a rapid increase of available genomic sequences. However, it is believed that de novo creation of coding sequences is rare in comparison to mechanisms such as domain shuffling and gene duplication; hence, most sequences should have homologs in other genomes. To investigate this, the sequences of 19 complete fungi genomes were compared. By using the phylogenetic relationship between these genomes, we could identify potentially de novo created orphans in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We found that only a small fraction, <2%, of the S. cerevisiae proteome is orphan, which confirms that de novo creation of coding sequences is indeed rare. Furthermore, we found it necessary to compare the most closely related species to distinguish between de novo created sequences and rapidly evolving sequences where homologs are present but cannot be detected. Next, the orphan proteins (OPs) and orphan domains (ODs) were characterized. First, it was observed that both OPs and ODs are short. In addition, at least some of the OPs have been shown to be functional in experimental assays, showing that they are not pseudogenes. Furthermore, in contrast to what has been reported before and what is seen for older orphans, S. cerevisiae specific ODs and proteins are not more disordered than other proteins. This might indicate that many of the older, and earlier classified, orphans indeed are fast-evolving sequences. Finally, >90% of the detected ODs are located at the protein termini, which suggests that these orphans could have been created by mutations that have affected the start or stop codons.
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| 6. |
- Ekman, Diana, et al.
(author)
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Multi-domain Proteins in the Three Kingdoms of Life : Orphan Domains and Other Unassigned Regions
- 2005
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In: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 348:1, s. 241-243
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Comparative studies of the proteomes from different organisms have provided valuable information about protein domain distribution in the kingdoms of life. Earlier studies have been limited by the fact that only about 50% of the proteomes could be matched to a domain. Here, we have extended these studies by including less well-defined domain definitions, Pfam-B and clustered domains, MAS, in addition to Pfam-A and SCOP domains. It was found that a significant fraction of these domain families are homologous to Pfam-A or SCOP domains. Further, we show that all regions that do not match a Pfam-A or SCOP domain contain a significantly higher fraction of disordered structure. These unstructured regions may be contained within orphan domains or function as linkers between structured domains. Using several different definitions we have re-estimated the number of multi-domain proteins in different organisms and found that several methods all predict that eukaryotes have approximately 65% multi-domain proteins, while the prokaryotes consist of approximately 40% multi-domain proteins. However, these numbers are strongly dependent on the exact choice of cut-off for domains in unassigned regions. In conclusion, all eukaryotes have similar fractions of multidomain proteins and disorder, whereas a high fraction of repeating domain is distinguished only in multicellular eukaryotes. This implies a role for repeats in cell-cell contacts while the other two features are important for intracellular functions.
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| 7. |
- Ekman, Diana, et al.
(author)
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Quantification of the Elevated Rate of Domain Rearrangements in Metazoa
- 2007
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In: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 372:5, s. 1337-1348
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Most eukaryotic proteins consist of multiple domains created through gene fusions or internal duplications. The most frequent change of a domain architecture (DA) is insertion or deletion of a domain at the N or C terminus. Still, the mechanisms underlying the evolution of multidomain proteins are not very well studied. Here, we have studied the evolution of multidomain architectures (MDA), guided by evolutionary information in the form of a phylogenetic tree. Our results show that Pfam domain families and MDAs have been created with comparable rates (0.1–1 per million years (My)). The major changes in DA evolution have occurred in the process of multicellularization and within the metazoan lineage. In contrast, creation of domains seems to have been frequent already in the early evolution. Furthermore, most of the architectures have been created from older domains or architectures, whereas novel domains are mainly found in single-domain proteins. However, a particular group of exon-bordering domains may have contributed to the rapid evolution of novel multidomain proteins in metazoan organisms. Finally, MDAs have evolved predominantly through insertions of domains, whereas domain deletions are less common. In conclusion, the rate of creation of multidomain proteins has accelerated in the metazoan lineage, which may partly be explained by the frequent insertion of exon-bordering domains into new architectures. However, our results indicate that other factors have contributed as well.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Light, Sara, et al.
(author)
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Long indels are disordered : A study of disorder and indels in homologous eukaryotic proteins
- 2013
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In: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Proteins and Proteomics. - : Elsevier BV. - 1570-9639 .- 1878-1454. ; 1834:5, s. 890-897
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Proteins evolve through point mutations as well as by insertions and deletions (indels). During the last decade it has become apparent that protein regions that do not fold into three-dimensional structures, i.e. intrinsically disordered regions, are quite common. Here, we have studied the relationship between protein disorder and indels using HMM-HMM pairwise alignments in two sets of orthologous eukaryotic protein pairs. First, we show that disordered residues are much more frequent among indel residues than among aligned residues and, also are more prevalent among indels than in coils. Second, we observed that disordered residues are particularly common in longer indels. Disordered indels of short-to-medium size are prevalent in the non-terminal regions of proteins while the longest indels, ordered and disordered alike, occur toward the termini of the proteins where new structural units are comparatively well tolerated. Finally, while disordered regions often evolve faster than ordered regions and disorder is common in indels, there are some previously recognized protein families where the disordered region is more conserved than the ordered region. We find that these rare proteins are often involved in information processes, such as RNA processing and translation. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: The emerging dynamic view of proteins: Protein plasticity in allostery, evolution and self-assembly.
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| 10. |
- Light, Sara, et al.
(author)
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Protein Expansion Is Primarily due to Indels in Intrinsically Disordered Regions
- 2013
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In: Molecular biology and evolution. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0737-4038 .- 1537-1719. ; 30:12, s. 2645-2653
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Proteins evolve not only through point mutations but also by insertion and deletion events, which affect the length of the protein. It is well known that such indel events most frequently occur in surface-exposed loops. However, detailed analysis of indel events in distantly related and fast-evolving proteins is hampered by the difficulty involved in correctly aligning such sequences. Here, we circumvent this problem by first only analyzing homologous proteins based on length variation rather than pairwise alignments. Using this approach, we find a surprisingly strong relationship between difference in length and difference in the number of intrinsically disordered residues, where up to three quarters of the length variation can be explained by changes in the number of intrinsically disordered residues. Further, we find that disorder is common in both insertions and deletions. A more detailed analysis reveals that indel events do not induce disorder but rather that already disordered regions accrue indels, suggesting that there is a lowered selective pressure for indels to occur within intrinsically disordered regions.
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