Molecular Evolution of Aralkylamine N-Acetyltransferase in Fish: A Genomic Survey
1
BGI Education Center, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518083, China
2
Shenzhen Key Lab of Marine Genomics, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Molecular Breeding in Marine Economic Animals, BGI, Shenzhen 518083, China
3
BGI-Zhenjiang Institute of Hydrobiology, Zhenjiang 212000, China
4
Molecular Genomics Laboratory, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Jun Li
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2016, 17(1), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms17010051
Received: 11 November 2015 / Revised: 21 December 2015 / Accepted: 23 December 2015 / Published: 31 December 2015
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish Molecular Biology)
All living organisms synchronize biological functions with environmental changes; melatonin plays a vital role in regulating daily and seasonal variations. Due to rhythmic activity of the timezyme aralkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT), the blood level of melatonin increases at night and decreases during daytime. Whereas other vertebrates have a single form of AANAT, bony fishes possess various isoforms of aanat genes, though the reasons are still unclear. Here, we have taken advantage of multiple unpublished teleost aanat sequences to explore and expand our understanding of the molecular evolution of aanat in fish. Our results confirm that two rounds of whole-genome duplication (WGD) led to the existence of three fish isoforms of aanat, i.e., aanat1a, aanat1b, and aanat2; in addition, gene loss led to the absence of some forms from certain special fish species. Furthermore, we suggest the different roles of two aanat1s in amphibious mudskippers, and speculate that the loss of aanat1a, may be related to terrestrial vision change. Several important sites of AANAT proteins and regulatory elements of aanat genes were analyzed for structural comparison and functional forecasting, respectively, which provides insights into the molecular evolution of the differences between AANAT1 and AANAT2.
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Keywords:
aralkylamine N-acetyltransferase; phylogenetic analysis; synteny; molecular evolution; Whole-Genome Duplication (WGD); gene loss
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MDPI and ACS Style
Li, J.; You, X.; Bian, C.; Yu, H.; Coon, S.L.; Shi, Q. Molecular Evolution of Aralkylamine N-Acetyltransferase in Fish: A Genomic Survey. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2016, 17, 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms17010051
AMA Style
Li J, You X, Bian C, Yu H, Coon SL, Shi Q. Molecular Evolution of Aralkylamine N-Acetyltransferase in Fish: A Genomic Survey. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2016; 17(1):51. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms17010051
Chicago/Turabian StyleLi, Jia; You, Xinxin; Bian, Chao; Yu, Hui; Coon, Steven L.; Shi, Qiong. 2016. "Molecular Evolution of Aralkylamine N-Acetyltransferase in Fish: A Genomic Survey" Int. J. Mol. Sci. 17, no. 1: 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms17010051
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