Eme L, Trilles A, Moreira D, Brochier-Armanet C. The phylogenomic analysis of the anaphase promoting complex and its targets points to complex and modern-like control of the cell cycle in the last common ancestor of eukaryotes.
BMC Evol Biol 2011;
11:265. [PMID:
21943402 PMCID:
PMC3195147 DOI:
10.1186/1471-2148-11-265]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2011] [Accepted: 09/23/2011] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
The Anaphase Promoting Complex or Cyclosome (APC/C) is the largest member of the ubiquitin ligase [E3] family. It plays a crucial role in the control of the cell cycle and cell proliferation by mediating the proteolysis of key components by the proteasome. APC/C is made of a dozen subunits that assemble into a large complex of ~1.5 MDa, which interacts with various cofactors and targets.
Results
Using comparative genomic and phylogenetic approaches, we showed that 24 out of 37 known APC/C subunits, adaptors/co-activators and main targets, were already present in the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA) and were well conserved to a few exceptions in all present-day eukaryotic lineages. The phylogenetic analysis of the 24 components inferred to be present in LECA showed that they contain a reliable phylogenetic signal to reconstruct the phylogeny of the domain Eucarya.
Conclusions
Taken together our analyses indicated that LECA had a complex and highly controlled modern-like cell cycle. Moreover, we showed that, despite what is generally assumed, proteins involved in housekeeping cellular functions may be a good complement to informational genes to study the phylogeny of eukaryotes.
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