(Below N is a link to NCBI taxonomic web page and E link to ESTHER at designed phylum.) > cellular organisms: NE > Eukaryota: NE > Opisthokonta: NE > Metazoa: NE > Eumetazoa: NE > Bilateria: NE > Deuterostomia: NE > Chordata: NE > Craniata: NE > Vertebrata: NE > Gnathostomata: NE > Teleostomi: NE > Euteleostomi: NE > Sarcopterygii: NE > Dipnotetrapodomorpha: NE > Tetrapoda: NE > Amniota: NE > Mammalia: NE > Theria: NE > Metatheria: NE > Didelphimorphia: NE > Didelphidae: NE > Didelphinae: NE > Monodelphis: NE > Monodelphis domestica: NE
LegendThis sequence has been compared to family alignement (MSA) red => minority aminoacid blue => majority aminoacid color intensity => conservation rate title => sequence position(MSA position)aminoacid rate Catalytic site Catalytic site in the MSA MALPTSMWLNCAWKAGVAHLVPRGLDATLALCIFGYLLQASAVSSQKLDD VDPLVTTNFGKIRGIKKELNNEILGPVIQFLGVPYAAPPTGERRFQPPEP PSSWSDTRNATQFAPVCPQNIIDGRLPEVMLPVWFTNNLDVVSSYVQDQS EDCLYLNIYVPTEDGPLTKKQTDDLGDNDGAEDEDIRDSGGPKPVMVYIH GGSYMEGTGNLYDGSVLASYGNVIVITVNYRLGVLGFLSTGDQAAKGNYG LLDLIQALRWTSENIGFFGGDPLRITVFGSGAGGSCVNLLTLSHYSEGNR WSNSTKGLFQRAIAQSGTALSSWAVSFQPAKYARMLATKVGCNMSDTVEL VECLQKKPYKELIDQDIQPARYHIAFGPVIDGDVIPDDPQILMEQGEFLN YDIMLGVNQGEGLKFVENIVDSEDGISASDFDFAVSNFVDNLYGYPEGKD VLRETIKFMYTDWADRHNPETRRKTLLALFTDHQWVAPAVATADLHSNFG SPTYFYAFYHHCQTDQVPAWADAAHGDEVPYVLGIPMIGPTELFPCNFSK NDVMLSAVVMTYWTNFAKTGDPNQPVPQDTKFIHTKPNRFEEVAWTRYSQ KDQLYLHIGLKPRVKEHYRANKVNLWLELVPHLHNLNDISQYTSTTTKVP STDITFRPTRKNSVPVTSAFPTAKQDDPKQQPSPFSVDQRDYSTELSVTI AVGASLLFLNILAFAALYYKKDKRRHDVHRRCSPQRTTTNDLTHAQEEEI MSLQMKHTDLDHECESIHPHEVVLRTACPPDYTLAMRRSPDDVPLMTPNT ITMIPNTIPGIQPLHTFNTFTGGQNNTLPDPHPHPLSHSRPRA
Neuroligins constitute a family of transmembrane proteins localized at the postsynaptic side of both excitatory and inhibitory synapses of the central nervous system. They are involved in synaptic function and maturation and recent studies have linked mutations in specific human Neuroligins to mental retardation and autism. We isolated the human Neuroligin homologs in Danio rerio. Next, we studied their gene structures and we reconstructed the evolution of the Neuroligin genes across vertebrate phyla. Using reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, we analyzed the expression and alternative splicing pattern of each gene during zebrafish embryonic development and in different adult organs. By in situ hybridization, we analyzed the temporal and spatial expression pattern during embryonic development and larval stages and we found that zebrafish Neuroligins are expressed throughout the nervous system. Globally, our results indicate that, during evolution, specific subfunctionalization events occurred within paralogous members of this gene family in zebrafish.
We report a high-quality draft of the genome sequence of the grey, short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). As the first metatherian ('marsupial') species to be sequenced, the opossum provides a unique perspective on the organization and evolution of mammalian genomes. Distinctive features of the opossum chromosomes provide support for recent theories about genome evolution and function, including a strong influence of biased gene conversion on nucleotide sequence composition, and a relationship between chromosomal characteristics and X chromosome inactivation. Comparison of opossum and eutherian genomes also reveals a sharp difference in evolutionary innovation between protein-coding and non-coding functional elements. True innovation in protein-coding genes seems to be relatively rare, with lineage-specific differences being largely due to diversification and rapid turnover in gene families involved in environmental interactions. In contrast, about 20% of eutherian conserved non-coding elements (CNEs) are recent inventions that postdate the divergence of Eutheria and Metatheria. A substantial proportion of these eutherian-specific CNEs arose from sequence inserted by transposable elements, pointing to transposons as a major creative force in the evolution of mammalian gene regulation.
