Horizontal Gene Transfer in Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases Including Leucine-Specific Subtypes

A molecular dynamics simulation study of amino acid selectivity of LeuRS editing domain from Thermus thermophilus

The accuracy of protein synthesis is provided by the editing functions of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs), a mechanism that eliminates misactivated amino acids or mischarged tRNAs. Despite research efforts, some molecular bases of these mechanisms are still unclear. The post-transfer editing pathway of leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS) carried out in a special insertion domain (the Connective Polypeptide 1 or CP1), as editing domain. Recently, it was shown by in vivo studies and was supported by mutagenesis, and the kinetics approaches that the CP1 domain of LeuRS has discriminatory power for different substrates. The goal of this work is to investigate the structural basis for amino acid recognition of LeuRS post-transfer editing processes with molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method. To pursue this aim, the molecular modeling studies on Thermus thermophiles LeuRS (LeuRSTT) with two post-transfer substrates (norvalyl-tRNA^Leu and isoleucyl-tRNA^Leu) was performed. Our results revealed that post-transfer substrate norvalyl-tRNA^Leu is more favorable. Moreover, the MD simulations show that branched side chain of Ile-A76 cannot allow water molecules to get close, which leads to a significant decrease in the rate of hydrolysis. Finally, the study showed that site mutation Asp347Ala has elucidated a number of fine structural differences in the binding mode of two post-transfer substrates to the active centre of LeuRS editing domain and two conserved threonines, namely Thr247 and Thr248, are responsible for the amino acid selection through the interaction with substrates.

Molecular evolution of the Slc15 family and its response to waterborne copper and mercury exposure in tilapia

The solute carrier 15 family (Slc15), also called oligopeptide transporter family (Pept), was well-known for its role in the cellular uptake of di/tripeptides and peptide-like molecules. Our understanding of Slc15 family has already been enlarged since the rapid increasing of genome information; however, efforts are still expected to reveal the diversification of the family in an evolutionary manner. In the study, the sequence information were collected and analyzed through eleven eukaryotic organism representatives, especially in fish species. Gene expansion was observed through the evolution of the family. Further study was carried out with the representative species-Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Tissue expression profiles were compared among members of the Slc15 family. Generally, they were all highly expressed both in the intestine and stomach, however, different members possessed its special tissue expression pattern. The mRNA levels of all the members (except Slc15a4) decreased after fasting while refeeding could restore the expression level. The recovery ability was impaired after exposure to environmental relevant concentration of copper (Cu(2+), 160 nmol/L). By contrast, mercury (Hg(2+), 25 nmol/L) did not exert significant impact on the recovery ability.

tRNA signatures reveal a polyphyletic origin of SAR11 strains among alphaproteobacteria

Molecular phylogenetics and phylogenomics are subject to noise from horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and bias from convergence in macromolecular compositions. Extensive variation in size, structure and base composition of alphaproteobacterial genomes has complicated their phylogenomics, sparking controversy over the origins and closest relatives of the SAR11 strains. SAR11 are highly abundant, cosmopolitan aquatic Alphaproteobacteria with streamlined, A+T-biased genomes. A dominant view holds that SAR11 are monophyletic and related to both Rickettsiales and the ancestor of mitochondria. Other studies dispute this, finding evidence of a polyphyletic origin of SAR11 with most strains distantly related to Rickettsiales. Although careful evolutionary modeling can reduce bias and noise in phylogenomic inference, entirely different approaches may be useful to extract robust phylogenetic signals from genomes. Here we develop simple phyloclassifiers from bioinformatically derived tRNA Class-Informative Features (CIFs), features predicted to target tRNAs for specific interactions within the tRNA interaction network. Our tRNA CIF-based model robustly and accurately classifies alphaproteobacterial genomes into one of seven undisputed monophyletic orders or families, despite great variability in tRNA gene complement sizes and base compositions. Our model robustly rejects monophyly of SAR11, classifying all but one strain as Rhizobiales with strong statistical support. Yet remarkably, conventional phylogenetic analysis of tRNAs classifies all SAR11 strains identically as Rickettsiales. We attribute this discrepancy to convergence of SAR11 and Rickettsiales tRNA base compositions. Thus, tRNA CIFs appear more robust to compositional convergence than tRNA sequences generally. Our results suggest that tRNA-CIF-based phyloclassification is robust to HGT of components of the tRNA interaction network, such as aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. We explain why tRNAs are especially advantageous for prediction of traits governing macromolecular interactions from genomic data, and why such traits may be advantageous in the search for robust signals to address difficult problems in classification and phylogeny.

If gene products work well in the networks of foreign cells, their genes may transfer horizontally between unrelated genomes. What factors dictate the ability to integrate into foreign networks? Different RNAs and proteins must interact specifically in order to function well as a system. For example, tRNA functions are determined by the interactions they have with other macromolecules. We have developed ways to predict, from genomic data alone, how tRNAs distinguish themselves to their specific interaction partners. Here, as proof of concept, we built a robust computational model from these bioinformatic predictions in seven lineages of Alphaproteobacteria. We validated our model by classifying hundreds of diverse alphaproteobacterial taxa and tested it on eight strains of SAR11, a phylogenetically controversial group that is highly abundant in the world's oceans. We found that different strains of SAR11 are more distantly related, both to each other and to mitochondria, than widely believed. We explain conflicting results about SAR11 as an artifact of bias created by the variability in base contents of alphaproteobacterial genomes. While this bias affects tRNAs too, our classifier appears unexpectedly robust to it. More broadly, our results suggest that traits governing macromolecular interactions may be more faithfully vertically inherited than the macromolecules themselves.

Networks in a large-scale phylogenetic analysis: reconstructing evolutionary history of Asparagales (Lilianae) based on four plastid genes

Phylogenetic analysis aims to produce a bifurcating tree, which disregards conflicting signals and displays only those that are present in a large proportion of the data. However, any character (or tree) conflict in a dataset allows the exploration of support for various evolutionary hypotheses. Although data-display network approaches exist, biologists cannot easily and routinely use them to compute rooted phylogenetic networks on real datasets containing hundreds of taxa. Here, we constructed an original neighbour-net for a large dataset of Asparagales to highlight the aspects of the resulting network that will be important for interpreting phylogeny. The analyses were largely conducted with new data collected for the same loci as in previous studies, but from different species accessions and greater sampling in many cases than in published analyses. The network tree summarised the majority data pattern in the characters of plastid sequences before tree building, which largely confirmed the currently recognised phylogenetic relationships. Most conflicting signals are at the base of each group along the Asparagales backbone, which helps us to establish the expectancy and advance our understanding of some difficult taxa relationships and their phylogeny. The network method should play a greater role in phylogenetic analyses than it has in the past. To advance the understanding of evolutionary history of the largest order of monocots Asparagales, absolute diversification times were estimated for family-level clades using relaxed molecular clock analyses.

Networks in a large-scale phylogenetic analysis: reconstructing evolutionary history of Asparagales (Lilianae) based on four plastid genes

Phylogenetic analysis aims to produce a bifurcating tree, which disregards conflicting signals and displays only those that are present in a large proportion of the data. However, any character (or tree) conflict in a dataset allows the exploration of support for various evolutionary hypotheses. Although data-display network approaches exist, biologists cannot easily and routinely use them to compute rooted phylogenetic networks on real datasets containing hundreds of taxa. Here, we constructed an original neighbour-net for a large dataset of Asparagales to highlight the aspects of the resulting network that will be important for interpreting phylogeny. The analyses were largely conducted with new data collected for the same loci as in previous studies, but from different species accessions and greater sampling in many cases than in published analyses. The network tree summarised the majority data pattern in the characters of plastid sequences before tree building, which largely confirmed the currently recognised phylogenetic relationships. Most conflicting signals are at the base of each group along the Asparagales backbone, which helps us to establish the expectancy and advance our understanding of some difficult taxa relationships and their phylogeny. The network method should play a greater role in phylogenetic analyses than it has in the past. To advance the understanding of evolutionary history of the largest order of monocots Asparagales, absolute diversification times were estimated for family-level clades using relaxed molecular clock analyses.

Genes but not genomes reveal bacterial domestication of Lactococcus lactis

BACKGROUND

The population structure and diversity of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, a major industrial bacterium involved in milk fermentation, was determined at both gene and genome level. Seventy-six lactococcal isolates of various origins were studied by different genotyping methods and thirty-six strains displaying unique macrorestriction fingerprints were analyzed by a new multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme. This gene-based analysis was compared to genomic characteristics determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE).

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS

The MLST analysis revealed that L. lactis subsp. lactis is essentially clonal with infrequent intra- and intergenic recombination; also, despite its taxonomical classification as a subspecies, it displays a genetic diversity as substantial as that within several other bacterial species. Genome-based analysis revealed a genome size variability of 20%, a value typical of bacteria inhabiting different ecological niches, and that suggests a large pan-genome for this subspecies. However, the genomic characteristics (macrorestriction pattern, genome or chromosome size, plasmid content) did not correlate to the MLST-based phylogeny, with strains from the same sequence type (ST) differing by up to 230 kb in genome size.

CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE

The gene-based phylogeny was not fully consistent with the traditional classification into dairy and non-dairy strains but supported a new classification based on ecological separation between "environmental" strains, the main contributors to the genetic diversity within the subspecies, and "domesticated" strains, subject to recent genetic bottlenecks. Comparison between gene- and genome-based analyses revealed little relationship between core and dispensable genome phylogenies, indicating that clonal diversification and phenotypic variability of the "domesticated" strains essentially arose through substantial genomic flux within the dispensable genome.

Evolutionary history of Arabidopsis thaliana aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase dual-targeted proteins

Aminoacyl-transfer RNA (tRNA) synthetases (aaRS) are key players in translation and act early in protein synthesis by mediating the attachment of amino acids to their cognate tRNA molecules. In plants, protein synthesis may occur in three subcellular compartments (cytosol, mitochondria, and chloroplasts), which requires multiple versions of the protein to be correctly delivered to its proper destination. The organellar aaRS are nuclear encoded and equipped with targeting information at the N-terminal sequence, which enables them to be specifically translocated to their final location. Most of the aaRS families present organellar proteins that are dual targeted to mitochondria and chloroplasts. Here, we examine the dual targeting behavior of aaRS from an evolutionary perspective. Our results show that Arabidopsis thaliana aaRS sequences are a result of a horizontal gene transfer event from bacteria. However, there is no evident bias indicating one single ancestor (Cyanobacteria or Proteobacteria). The dual-targeted aaRS phylogenetic relationship was characterized into two different categories (paralogs and homologs) depending on the state recovered for both dual-targeted and cytosolic proteins. Taken together, our results suggest that the dual-targeted condition is a gain-of-function derived from gene duplication. Selection may have maintained the original function in at least one of the copies as the additional copies diverged.

The ancient history of the structure of ribonuclease P and the early origins of Archaea

BACKGROUND

Ribonuclease P is an ancient endonuclease that cleaves precursor tRNA and generally consists of a catalytic RNA subunit (RPR) and one or more proteins (RPPs). It represents an important macromolecular complex and model system that is universally distributed in life. Its putative origins have inspired fundamental hypotheses, including the proposal of an ancient RNA world.

RESULTS

To study the evolution of this complex, we constructed rooted phylogenetic trees of RPR molecules and substructures and estimated RPP age using a cladistic method that embeds structure directly into phylogenetic analysis. The general approach was used previously to study the evolution of tRNA, SINE RNA and 5S rRNA, the origins of metabolism, and the evolution and complexity of the protein world, and revealed here remarkable evolutionary patterns. Trees of molecules uncovered the tripartite nature of life and the early origin of archaeal RPRs. Trees of substructures showed molecules originated in stem P12 and were accessorized with a catalytic P1-P4 core structure before the first substructure was lost in Archaea. This core currently interacts with RPPs and ancient segments of the tRNA molecule. Finally, a census of protein domain structure in hundreds of genomes established RPPs appeared after the rise of metabolic enzymes at the onset of the protein world.

CONCLUSIONS

The study provides a detailed account of the history and early diversification of a fundamental ribonucleoprotein and offers further evidence in support of the existence of a tripartite organismal world that originated by the segregation of archaeal lineages from an ancient community of primordial organisms.

Crystal structures of the human and fungal cytosolic Leucyl-tRNA synthetase editing domains: A structural basis for the rational design of antifungal benzoxaboroles

Leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LeuRS) specifically links leucine to the 3' end of tRNA(leu) isoacceptors. The overall accuracy of the two-step aminoacylation reaction is enhanced by an editing domain that hydrolyzes mischarged tRNAs, notably ile-tRNA(leu). We present crystal structures of the editing domain from two eukaryotic cytosolic LeuRS: human and fungal pathogen Candida albicans. In comparison with previous structures of the editing domain from bacterial and archeal kingdoms, these structures show that the LeuRS editing domain has a conserved structural core containing the active site for hydrolysis, with distinct bacterial, archeal, or eukaryotic specific peripheral insertions. It was recently shown that the benzoxaborole antifungal compound AN2690 (5-fluoro-1,3-dihydro-1-hydroxy-1,2-benzoxaborole) inhibits LeuRS by forming a covalent adduct with the 3' adenosine of tRNA(leu) at the editing site, thus locking the enzyme in an inactive conformation. To provide a structural basis for enhancing the specificity of these benzoxaborole antifungals, we determined the structure at 2.2 A resolution of the C. albicans editing domain in complex with a related compound, AN3018 (6-(ethylamino)-5-fluorobenzo[c][1,2]oxaborol-1(3H)-ol), using AMP as a surrogate for the 3' adenosine of tRNA(leu). The interactions between the AN3018-AMP adduct and C. albicans LeuRS are similar to those previously observed for bacterial LeuRS with the AN2690 adduct, with an additional hydrogen bond to the extra ethylamine group. However, compared to bacteria, eukaryotic cytosolic LeuRS editing domains contain an extra helix that closes over the active site, largely burying the adduct and providing additional direct and water-mediated contacts. Small differences between the human domain and the fungal domain could be exploited to enhance fungal specificity.

Horizontal Gene Transfers in prokaryotes show differential preferences for metabolic and translational genes

Background

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is an important process, which contributes in bacterial pathogenesis and drug resistance. A number of methods have been proposed for detection of horizontal gene transfer. One successful approach to the detection of HGT events is due to Novichkov et al. (J. Bacteriology 186, 6575–85), who rely on comparing phylogenetic distances within a gene family with genomic distances of the source organisms. Building on their approach, we introduce outlier detection in the correlation between those two sets of distances. This approach is designed to detect horizontal transfers of core set of genes present in many bacteria. The principle behind method allows detection of xenologous gene displacements as well as acquisition of novel genes.

Results

Simulations indicated that our method performs better than Novichkov et al's original approach. The approach very efficiently identified HGT between distantly related bacteria and also a limited number of gene transfers between closely related bacteria. In combination with sequence similarity and likelihood tests, it yields a measure robust enough to derive a set of 171 genes deemed likely to have been horizontally transferred. Further analysis of these 171 established horizontal transfer events gave interesting insights in the direction of transfer.

Conclusion

The majority of transfers between archaea and bacteria have occurred in the direction from bacteria to archaea rather than the other way round. Genes transferred between the archaea and bacteria are mostly metabolic genes. On the other hand, genes transferred within the bacterial phyla are mainly involved in translation.

Horizontal gene transfer: sustaining pathogenicity and optimizing host-pathogen interactions

Successful host-pathogen interactions require the presence, maintenance and expression of gene cassettes called 'pathogenicity islands' (PAIs) and 'metabolic islands' (MAIs) in the respective pathogen. The products of these genes confer on the pathogen the means to recognize their host(s) and to efficiently evade host defences in order to colonize, propagate within the host and eventually disseminate from the host. Virulence effectors secreted by type III and type IV secretion systems, among others, play vital roles in sustaining pathogenicity and optimizing host-pathogen interactions. Complete genome sequences of plant pathogenic bacteria have revealed the presence of PAIs and MAIs. The genes of these islands possess mosaic structures with regions displaying differences in nucleotide composition and codon usage in relation to adjacent genome structures, features that are highly suggestive of their acquisition from a foreign donor. These donors can be other bacteria, as well as lower members of the Archaea and Eukarya. Genes that have moved from the domains Archaea and Eukarya to the domain Bacteria are true cases of horizontal gene transfer. They represent interdomain genetic transfer. Genetic exchange between distinct members of the domain Bacteria, however, represents lateral gene transfer, an intradomain event. Both horizontal and lateral gene transfer events have been used to facilitate survival fitness of the pathogen.

Intraphylum diversity and complex evolution of cyanobacterial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases

A comparative genomic analysis of 35 cyanobacterial strains has revealed that the gene complement of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARSs) and routes for aminoacyl-tRNA synthesis may differ among the species of this phylum. Several genes encoding AARS paralogues were identified in some genomes. In-depth phylogenetic analysis was done for each of these proteins to gain insight into their evolutionary history. GluRS, HisRS, ArgRS, ThrRS, CysRS, and Glu-Q-RS showed evidence of a complex evolutionary course as indicated by a number of inconsistencies with our reference tree for cyanobacterial phylogeny. In addition to sequence data, support for evolutionary hypotheses involving horizontal gene transfer or gene duplication events was obtained from other observations including biased sequence conservation, the presence of indels (insertions or deletions), or vestigial traces of ancestral redundant genes. We present evidences for a novel protein domain with two putative transmembrane helices recruited independently by distinct AARS in particular cyanobacteria.

Evolutionary and transcriptional analysis of karyopherin beta superfamily proteins

In eukaryotes, karyopherin beta superfamily proteins mediate nucleocytoplasmic transport of macromolecules. We investigated the evolutionary and transcriptional patterns of these proteins using bioinformatics approaches. No obvious homologs were found in prokaryotes, but an extensive set of beta-karyopherin proteins was found in yeast. Among 14 beta-karyopherins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, eight corresponded to their human orthologs directly without diversification, two were lost, and the remaining four proteins exhibited gene duplications by different mechanisms. We also identified beta-karyopherin orthologs in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, Danio rerio, Xenopus tropicalis, Gallus gallus, and Mus musculus. beta-Karyopherins were ubiquitously but nonuniformly expressed in distinct cells and tissues. In yeast and mice, the titer of some beta-karyopherin transcripts appeared to be regulated both during the cell cycle and during development. Further virtual analysis of promoter binding elements suggested that the transcription factors SP1, NRF-2, HEN-1, RREB-1, and nuclear factor Y regulate expression of most beta-karyopherin genes. These findings emphasize new mechanisms in functional diversification of beta-karyopherins and regulation of nucleocytoplasmic transport.

Origin and evolution of the mitochondrial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases

Many theories favor a fusion of 2 prokaryotic genomes for the origin of the Eukaryotes, but there are disagreements on the origin, timing, and cellular structures of the cells involved. Equally controversial is the source of the nuclear genes for mitochondrial proteins, although the alpha-proteobacterial contribution to the mitochondrial genome is well established. Phylogenetic inferences show that the nuclearly encoded mitochondrial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) occupy a position in the tree that is not close to any of the currently sequenced alpha-proteobacterial genomes, despite cohesive and remarkably well-resolved alpha-proteobacterial clades in 12 of the 20 trees. Two or more alpha-proteobacterial clusters were observed in 8 cases, indicative of differential loss of paralogous genes or horizontal gene transfer. Replacement and retargeting events within the nuclear genomes of the Eukaryotes was indicated in 10 trees, 4 of which also show split alpha-proteobacterial groups. A majority of the mitochondrial aaRSs originate from within the bacterial domain, but none specifically from the alpha-Proteobacteria. For some aaRS, the endosymbiotic origin may have been erased by ongoing gene replacements on the bacterial as well as the eukaryotic side. For others that accurately resolve the alpha-proteobacterial divergence patterns, the lack of affiliation with mitochondria is more surprising. We hypothesize that the ancestral eukaryotic gene pool hosted primordial "bacterial-like" genes, to which a limited set of alpha-proteobacterial genes, mostly coding for components of the respiratory chain complexes, were added and selectively maintained.

An inventory of yeast proteins associated with nucleolar and ribosomal components

BACKGROUND

Although baker's yeast is a primary model organism for research on eukaryotic ribosome assembly and nucleoli, the list of its proteins that are functionally associated with nucleoli or ribosomes is still incomplete. We trained a naïve Bayesian classifier to predict novel proteins that are associated with yeast nucleoli or ribosomes based on parts lists of nucleoli in model organisms and large-scale protein interaction data sets. Phylogenetic profiling and gene expression analysis were carried out to shed light on evolutionary and regulatory aspects of nucleoli and ribosome assembly.

RESULTS

We predict that, in addition to 439 known proteins, a further 62 yeast proteins are associated with components of the nucleolus or the ribosome. The complete set comprises a large core of archaeal-type proteins, several bacterial-type proteins, but mostly eukaryote-specific inventions. Expression of nucleolar and ribosomal genes tends to be strongly co-regulated compared to other yeast genes.

CONCLUSION

The number of proteins associated with nucleolar or ribosomal components in yeast is at least 14% higher than known before. The nucleolus probably evolved from an archaeal-type ribosome maturation machinery by recruitment of several bacterial-type and mostly eukaryote-specific factors. Not only expression of ribosomal protein genes, but also expression of genes encoding the 90S processosome, are strongly co-regulated and both regulatory programs are distinct from each other.