A Naturally Occurring Deletion in FliE from Salmonella enterica Serovar Dublin Results in an Aflagellate Phenotype and Defective Proinflammatory Properties.

Salmonella enterica serovar Dublin is adapted to cattle but is able to infect humans with high invasiveness. An acute inflammatory response at the intestine helps to prevent Salmonella dissemination to systemic sites. Flagella contribute to this response by providing motility and FliC-mediated signaling through pattern recognition receptors. In a previous work, we reported a high frequency (11 out of 25) of S Dublin isolates lacking flagella in a collection obtained from humans and cattle. The aflagellate strains were impaired in their proinflammatory properties in vitro and in vivo The aim of this work was to elucidate the underlying cause of the absence of flagella in S Dublin isolates. We report here that class 3 flagellar genes are repressed in the human aflagellate isolates, due to impaired secretion of FliA anti-sigma factor FlgM. This phenotype is due to an in-frame 42-nucleotide deletion in the fliE gene, which codes for a protein located in the flagellar basal body. The deletion is predicted to produce a protein lacking amino acids 18 to 31. The aflagellate phenotype was highly stable; revertants were obtained only when fliA was artificially overexpressed combined with several successive passages in motility agar. DNA sequence analysis revealed that motile revertants resulted from duplications of DNA sequences in fliE adjacent to the deleted region. These duplications produced a FliE protein of similar length to the wild type and demonstrate that amino acids 18 to 31 of FliE are not essential. The same deletion was detected in S Dublin isolates obtained from cattle, indicating that this mutation circulates in nature.

Natural Selection Drives Rapid Functional Evolution of Young Drosophila Duplicate Genes.

Gene duplication is thought to play a major role in phenotypic evolution. Yet the forces involved in the functional divergence of young duplicate genes remain unclear. Here, we use population-genetic inference to elucidate the role of natural selection in the functional evolution of young duplicate genes in Drosophila melanogaster. We find that negative selection acts on young duplicates with ancestral functions, and positive selection on those with novel functions, suggesting that natural selection may determine whether and how young duplicate genes are retained. Moreover, evidence of natural selection is strongest in protein-coding regions and 3' UTRs of young duplicates, indicating that selection may primarily target encoded proteins and regulatory sequences specific to 3' UTRs. Further analysis reveals that natural selection acts immediately after duplication and weakens over time, possibly explaining the observed bias toward the acquisition of new functions by young, rather than old, duplicate gene copies. Last, we find an enrichment of testis-related functions in young duplicates that underwent recent positive selection, but not in young duplicates that did not undergo recent positive selection, or in old duplicates that either did or did not undergo recent positive selection. Thus, our findings reveal that natural selection is a key player in the functional evolution of young duplicate genes, acts rapidly and in a region-specific manner, and may underlie the origin of novel testis-specific phenotypes in Drosophila.

Identification of duplicated and stress-inducible Aox2b gene co-expressed with Aox1 in species of the Medicago genus reveals a regulation linked to gene rearrangement in leguminous genomes.

In flowering plants, alternative oxidase (Aox) is encoded by 3-5 genes distributed in 2 subfamilies (Aox1 and Aox2). In several species only Aox1 is reported as a stress-responsive gene, but in the leguminous Vigna unguiculata Aox2b is also induced by stress. In this work we investigated the Aox genes from two leguminous species of the Medicago genus (Medicago sativa and Medicago truncatula) which present one Aox1, one Aox2a and an Aox2b duplication (named here Aox2b1 and Aox2b2). Expression analyses by semi-quantitative RT-PCR in M. sativa revealed that Aox1, Aox2b1 and Aox2b2 transcripts increased during seed germination. Similar analyses in leaves and roots under different treatments (SA, PEG, H2O2 and cysteine) revealed that these genes are also induced by stress, but with peculiar spatio-temporal differences. Aox1 and Aox2b1 showed basal levels of expression under control conditions and were induced by stress in leaves and roots. Aox2b2 presented a dual behavior, i.e., it was expressed only under stress conditions in leaves, and showed basal expression levels in roots that were induced by stress. Moreover, Aox2a was expressed at higher levels in leaves and during seed germination than in roots and appeared to be not responsive to stress. The Aox expression profiles obtained from a M. truncatula microarray dataset also revealed a stress-induced co-expression of Aox1, Aox2b1 and Aox2b2 in leaves and roots. These results reinforce the stress-inducible co-expression of Aox1/Aox2b in some leguminous plants. Comparative genomic analysis indicates that this regulation is linked to Aox1/Aox2b proximity in the genome as a result of the gene rearrangement that occurred in some leguminous plants during evolution. The differential expression of Aox2b1/2b2 suggests that a second gene has been originated by recent gene duplication with neofunctionalization.

ZINC-INDUCED FACILITATOR-LIKE family in plants: lineage-specific expansion in monocotyledons and conserved genomic and expression features among rice (Oryza sativa) paralogs.

BACKGROUND: Duplications are very common in the evolution of plant genomes, explaining the high number of members in plant gene families. New genes born after duplication can undergo pseudogenization, neofunctionalization or subfunctionalization. Rice is a model for functional genomics research, an important crop for human nutrition and a target for biofortification. Increased zinc and iron content in the rice grain could be achieved by manipulation of metal transporters. Here, we describe the ZINC-INDUCED FACILITATOR-LIKE (ZIFL) gene family in plants, and characterize the genomic structure and expression of rice paralogs, which are highly affected by segmental duplication. RESULTS: Sequences of sixty-eight ZIFL genes, from nine plant species, were comparatively analyzed. Although related to MSF_1 proteins, ZIFL protein sequences consistently grouped separately. Specific ZIFL sequence signatures were identified. Monocots harbor a larger number of ZIFL genes in their genomes than dicots, probably a result of a lineage-specific expansion. The rice ZIFL paralogs were named OsZIFL1 to OsZIFL13 and characterized. The genomic organization of the rice ZIFL genes seems to be highly influenced by segmental and tandem duplications and concerted evolution, as rice genome contains five highly similar ZIFL gene pairs. Most rice ZIFL promoters are enriched for the core sequence of the Fe-deficiency-related box IDE1. Gene expression analyses of different plant organs, growth stages and treatments, both from our qPCR data and from microarray databases, revealed that the duplicated ZIFL gene pairs are mostly co-expressed. Transcripts of OsZIFL4, OsZIFL5, OsZIFL7, and OsZIFL12 accumulate in response to Zn-excess and Fe-deficiency in roots, two stresses with partially overlapping responses. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that ZIFL genes have different evolutionary histories in monocot and dicot lineages. In rice, concerted evolution affected ZIFL duplicated genes, possibly maintaining similar expression patterns between pairs. The enrichment for IDE1 boxes in rice ZIFL gene promoters suggests a role in Zn-excess and Fe-deficiency up-regulation of ZIFL transcripts. Moreover, this is the first description of the ZIFL gene family in plants and the basis for functional studies on this family, which may play important roles in Zn and Fe homeostasis in plants.

Structural shifts of aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes were instrumental for the early evolution of retinoid-dependent axial patterning in metazoans.

Aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDHs) catabolize toxic aldehydes and process the vitamin A-derived retinaldehyde into retinoic acid (RA), a small diffusible molecule and a pivotal chordate morphogen. In this study, we combine phylogenetic, structural, genomic, and developmental gene expression analyses to examine the evolutionary origins of ALDH substrate preference. Structural modeling reveals that processing of small aldehydes, such as acetaldehyde, by ALDH2, versus large aldehydes, including retinaldehyde, by ALDH1A is associated with small versus large substrate entry channels (SECs), respectively. Moreover, we show that metazoan ALDH1s and ALDH2s are members of a single ALDH1/2 clade and that during evolution, eukaryote ALDH1/2s often switched between large and small SECs after gene duplication, transforming constricted channels into wide opened ones and vice versa. Ancestral sequence reconstructions suggest that during the evolutionary emergence of RA signaling, the ancestral, narrow-channeled metazoan ALDH1/2 gave rise to large ALDH1 channels capable of accommodating bulky aldehydes, such as retinaldehyde, supporting the view that retinoid-dependent signaling arose from ancestral cellular detoxification mechanisms. Our analyses also indicate that, on a more restricted evolutionary scale, ALDH1 duplicates from invertebrate chordates (amphioxus and ascidian tunicates) underwent switches to smaller and narrower SECs. When combined with alterations in gene expression, these switches led to neofunctionalization from ALDH1-like roles in embryonic patterning to systemic, ALDH2-like roles, suggesting functional shifts from signaling to detoxification.

Rapid concerted evolution in animal mitochondrial DNA.

Recombinational genetic processes are thought to be rare in the uniparentally inherited mitochondrial (mt) DNA molecules of vertebrates and other animals. Here, however, we document extremely rapid concerted microevolution, probably mediated by frequent gene conversion events, of duplicated sequences in the mtDNA control region of mangrove killifishes (Kryptolebias marmoratus). In local populations, genetic distances between paralogous loci within an individual were typically smaller (and often zero) than those between orthologous loci in different specimens. These findings call for the recognition of concerted evolution as a microevolutionary process and gene conversion as a likely recombinational force in animal mtDNA. The previously unsuspected power of these molecular phenomena could greatly impact mtDNA dynamics within germ cell lineages and in local animal populations.

Differential expression of duplicated opsin genes in two eyetypes of ostracod crustaceans.

In the first molecular study of ostracod (Crustacea) vision, we present partial cDNA sequences of ostracod visual pigment genes (opsins). We found strong support for differential expression of opsins in ostracod median and compound eyes and suggest that photoreceptor specific expression may be a general phenomenon in organisms with multiple receptors. We infer that eye-specific expression predates the divergence of the two species examined, Skogsbergia lerneri and Vargula hilgendorfii, because eye-specific opsin orthologs are present in both species. We found multiple opsin loci in ostracods, estimating that at least eight are present in Skogsbergia lerneri. All opsins from both ostracod species examined are more closely related to each other than to any other known opsin sequences. Because we find no evidence for gene conversion or alternative splicing, we suggest the occurrence of many recent gene duplications. Why ostracods may have retained multiple recent opsin gene duplicates is unknown, but we discuss several possible hypotheses.

Analysis of a conserved duplicated tRNA gene in the mitochondrial genome of blowflies.

The mtDNA control region (CR) and flanking genes of the blowflies Chrysomya albiceps, Chrysomya megacephala and Chrysomya chloropyga (Calliphoridae) were characterized. The most unusual feature found was the presence of duplicated tRNA sequences corresponding to trnI and a portion of trnQ. The partially duplicated trnQ was very likely a pseudogene since most of the sequence of the typical insect trnQ gene was missing. In contrast, the trnI gene had a conserved primary sequence following the duplication event and may represent a functional copy. These results demonstrate the plasticity of the mtDNA molecule in Chrysomya, especially for tRNA genes and the adjacent control region sequences.

Identification and characterization of polymorphisms at the HAS alpha1-acid glycoprotein (ORM*) gene locus in Caucasians

Human alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein (AGP) or orosomucoid (ORM) is a major acute phase protein that is thought to play a crucial role in maintaining homeostasis. Human AGP is the product of a cluster of at least two adjacent genes located on HSA chromosome 9. Using a range of restriction endonucleases we have investigated DNA variation at the locus encoding the AGP genes in a group of healthy Caucasians. Polymorphisms were identified using BamHI, EcoRI, BglII, PvuII, HindIII, TaqI and MspI. Nonrandom associations were found between the BamHI, EcoRI and BglII RFLPs. The RFLPs detected with PvuII, TaqI and MspI were all located in exon 6 of both AGP genes. The duplication of an AGP gene was observed in 11 of the individuals studied and was in linkage disequilibrium with the TaqI RFLP. The identification and characterization of these polymorphisms should prove useful for other population and forensic studies

Identification and characterization of polymorphisms at the HAS alpha1-acid glycoprotein (ORM*) gene locus in Caucasians.

Human alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein (AGP) or orosomucoid (ORM) is a major acute phase protein that is thought to play a crucial role in maintaining homeostasis. Human AGP is the product of a cluster of at least two adjacent genes located on HSA chromosome 9. Using a range of restriction endonucleases we have investigated DNA variation at the locus encoding the AGP genes in a group of healthy Caucasians. Polymorphisms were identified using BamHI, EcoRI, BglII, PvuII, HindIII, TaqI and MspI. Nonrandom associations were found between the BamHI, EcoRI and BglII RFLPs. The RFLPs detected with PvuII, TaqI and MspI were all located in exon 6 of both AGP genes. The duplication of an AGP gene was observed in 11% of the individuals studied and was in linkage disequilibrium with the TaqI RFLP. The identification and characterization of these polymorphisms should prove useful for other population and forensic studies.

Dynamics of mobile element activity in chalcone synthase loci in the common morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea).

Mobile element dynamics in seven alleles of the chalcone synthase D locus (CHS-D) of the common morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea) are analyzed in the context of synonymous nucleotide sequence distances for CHS-D exons. By using a nucleotide sequence of CHS-D from the sister species Ipomoea nil (Japanese morning glory [Johzuka-Hisatomi, Y., Hoshino, A., Mori, T., Habu, Y. & Iida, S. (1999) Genes Genet. Syst. 74, 141-147], it is also possible to determine the relative frequency of insertion and loss of elements within the CHS-D locus between these two species. At least four different types of transposable elements exist upstream of the coding region, or within the single intron of the CHS-D locus in I. purpurea. There are three distinct families of miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITES), and some recent transpositions of Activator/Dissociation (Ac/Ds)-like elements (Tip100), of some short interspersed repetitive elements (SINEs), and of an insertion sequence (InsIpCHSD) found in the neighborhood of this locus. The data provide no compelling evidence of the transposition of the mites since the separation of I. nil and I. purpurea roughly 8 million years ago. Finally, it is shown that the number and frequency of mobile elements are highly heterogeneous among different duplicate CHS loci, suggesting that the dynamics observed at CHS-D are locus-specific.

A family of highly conserved glycosomal 2-hydroxyacid dehydrogenases from Phytomonas sp.

Phytomonas sp. contains two malate dehydrogenase isoforms, a mitochondrial isoenzyme with a high specificity for oxaloacetate and a glycosomal isozyme that acts on a broad range of substrates (Uttaro, A. D., and Opperdoes, F.R. (1997) Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 89, 51-59). Here, we show that the low specificity of the latter isoenzyme is the result of a number of recent gene duplications that gave rise to a family of glycosomal 2-hydroxyacid dehydrogenase genes. Two of these genes were cloned, sequenced, and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Although both gene products have 322 amino acids, share 90.4% identical residues, and have a similar hydrophobicity profile and net charge, their kinetic properties were strikingly different. One isoform behaved as a real malate dehydrogenase with a high specificity for oxaloacetate, whereas the other showed no activity with oxaloacetate but was able to reduce other oxoacids, such as phenyl pyruvate, 2-oxoisocaproate, 2-oxovalerate, 2-oxobutyrate, 2-oxo-4-methiolbutyrate, and pyruvate.