What is it about?
In this paper we show that: 1) the three types of memrbane-associated progesterone receptor (MAPR) family genes that are found in animals were already present in the ancestor of fungi. 2) The C-terminus of alll three protei subfamilies became longer just before the origin of animals, or early in animal evolution. 3) PGRMC1 acquired two tyrosines in the last eumetazoan common ancestor (LEUMCA): the animal that gave rise to cindarians (jellyfish, corals, hydra, sea anenomes, etc) and bilaterally symmetric animals. These tyrosines have been strongly conserved in all eumetazoans, and so must be important. The LEUMCA was the first animal to develop the gastrulation organiser that is so important in directing the embryological development of eumetazoan body plans, and differentiated tissues such gut epithelium and neurons with synapses. We inherited these from the LEUMCA. 4) One of the tyrosines is situated in a protein interaction motif, predicted to make contacts with proteins of the actin cytoskeleton. Read the paper for the rest.
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Why is it important?
This paper shows that all three MAPR family genes were present in the evolutionary lineage that led to animals. Furthermore we show that the tyrosine residues of PGRMC1 that are phosphorylated in mammals appeared in evolution at the stage of the first eumetazoan animal that exhibited gastrulation-dependent tissue differentiation, which of course laid the basis for the subsequent evolution of what many might call 'higher animals' (eumetazoans) including insects, molluscs, worms, spiders, and chordates, including fish and the land vertebrates. PGRMC1 tyrosine phosphorylation is strongly implicated in the embryological development of all these animals, including humans.
Perspectives
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Early eukaryotic origins and metazoan elaboration of MAPR family proteins, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, April 2020, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106814.
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