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Burnim AA, Spence MA, Xu D, Jackson CJ, Ando N. Comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the ribonucleotide reductase family reveals an ancestral clade. eLife 2022; 11:79790. [PMID: 36047668 PMCID: PMC9531940 DOI: 10.7554/elife.79790] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2022] [Accepted: 08/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Ribonucleotide reductases (RNRs) are used by all free-living organisms and many viruses to catalyze an essential step in the de novo biosynthesis of DNA precursors. RNRs are remarkably diverse by primary sequence and cofactor requirement, while sharing a conserved fold and radical-based mechanism for nucleotide reduction. Here, we structurally aligned the diverse RNR family by the conserved catalytic barrel to reconstruct the first large-scale phylogeny consisting of 6779 sequences that unites all extant classes of the RNR family and performed evo-velocity analysis to independently validate our evolutionary model. With a robust phylogeny in-hand, we uncovered a novel, phylogenetically distinct clade that is placed as ancestral to the classes I and II RNRs, which we have termed clade Ø. We employed small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), cryogenic-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and AlphaFold2 to investigate a member of this clade from Synechococcus phage S-CBP4 and report the most minimal RNR architecture to-date. Based on our analyses, we propose an evolutionary model of diversification in the RNR family and delineate how our phylogeny can be used as a roadmap for targeted future study. Billions of years ago, the Earth’s atmosphere had very little oxygen. It was only after some bacteria and early plants evolved to harness energy from sunlight that oxygen began to fill the Earth’s environment. Oxygen is highly reactive and can interfere with enzymes and other molecules that are essential to life. Organisms living at this point in history therefore had to adapt to survive in this new oxygen-rich world. An ancient family of enzymes known as ribonucleotide reductases are used by all free-living organisms and many viruses to repair and replicate their DNA. Because of their essential role in managing DNA, these enzymes have been around on Earth for billions of years. Understanding how they evolved could therefore shed light on how nature adapted to increasing oxygen levels and other environmental changes at the molecular level. One approach to study how proteins evolved is to use computational analysis to construct a phylogenetic tree. This reveals how existing members of a family are related to one another based on the chain of molecules (known as amino acids) that make up each protein. Despite having similar structures and all having the same function, ribonucleotide reductases have remarkably diverse sequences of amino acids. This makes it computationally very demanding to build a phylogenetic tree. To overcome this, Burnim, Spence, Xu et al. created a phylogenetic tree using structural information from a part of the enzyme that is relatively similar in many modern-day ribonucleotide reductases. The final result took seven continuous months on a supercomputer to generate, and includes over 6,000 members of the enzyme family. The phylogenetic tree revealed a new distinct group of ribonucleotide reductases that may explain how one adaptation to increasing levels of oxygen emerged in some family members, while another adaptation emerged in others. The approach used in this work also opens up a new way to study how other highly diverse enzymes and other protein families evolved, potentially revealing new insights about our planet’s past.
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Affiliation(s)
- Audrey A Burnim
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States
| | - Matthew A Spence
- Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Da Xu
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States
| | - Colin J Jackson
- Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Nozomi Ando
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States
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Escobari B, Borsch T, Quedensley TS, Gruenstaeudl M. Plastid phylogenomics of the Gynoxoid group (Senecioneae, Asteraceae) highlights the importance of motif-based sequence alignment amid low genetic distances. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 2021; 108:2235-2256. [PMID: 34636417 DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.1775] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 08/12/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
PREMISE The genus Gynoxys and relatives form a species-rich lineage of Andean shrubs and trees with low genetic distances within the sunflower subtribe Tussilaginineae. Previous molecular phylogenetic investigations of the Tussilaginineae have included few, if any, representatives of this Gynoxoid group or reconstructed ambiguous patterns of relationships for it. METHODS We sequenced complete plastid genomes of 21 species of the Gynoxoid group and related Tussilaginineae and conducted detailed comparisons of the phylogenetic relationships supported by the gene, intron, and intergenic spacer partitions of these genomes. We also evaluated the impact of manual, motif-based adjustments of automatic DNA sequence alignments on phylogenetic tree inference. RESULTS Our results indicate that the inclusion of all plastid genome partitions is needed to infer well-supported phylogenetic trees of the Gynoxoid group. Whole plastome-based tree inference suggests that the genera Gynoxys and Nordenstamia are polyphyletic and form the core clade of the Gynoxoid group. This clade is sister to a clade of Aequatorium and Paragynoxys and also includes some but not all representatives of Paracalia. CONCLUSIONS The concatenation and combined analysis of all plastid genome partitions and the construction of manually-curated, motif-based DNA sequence alignments are found to be instrumental in the recovery of well-supported relationships of the Gynoxoid group. We demonstrate that the correct assessment of homology in genome-level plastid sequence data sets is crucial for subsequent phylogeny reconstruction and that the manual post-processing of multiple sequence alignments improves the reliability of such reconstructions amid low genetic distances between taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Belen Escobari
- Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Herbario Nacional de Bolivia, Universidad Mayor de San Andres, Casilla, La Paz, 10077, Bolivia
| | - Thomas Borsch
- Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, 14195, Germany
- Institut für Biologie, Systematische Botanik und Pflanzengeographie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, 14195, Germany
| | - Taylor S Quedensley
- Department of Biology, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, 76109, USA
| | - Michael Gruenstaeudl
- Institut für Biologie, Systematische Botanik und Pflanzengeographie, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, 14195, Germany
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High-Throughput Reconstruction of Ancestral Protein Sequence, Structure, and Molecular Function. Methods Mol Biol 2019; 1851:135-170. [PMID: 30298396 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-8736-8_8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Ancestral protein sequence reconstruction is a powerful technique for explicitly testing hypotheses about the evolution of molecular function, allowing researchers to meticulously dissect how historical changes in protein sequence impacted functional repertoire by altering the protein's 3D structure. These techniques have provided concrete, experimentally validated insights into ancient evolutionary processes and help illuminate the complex relationship between protein sequence, structure, and function. Inferring the protein family phylogenies on which ancestral sequence reconstruction depends and reconstructing the sequences, themselves, are amenable to high-throughput computational analysis. However, determining the structures of ancestral-reconstructed proteins and characterizing their functions typically rely on time-consuming and expensive laboratory analyses, limiting most current studies to examining a relatively small number of specific hypotheses. For this reason, we have little detailed, unbiased information about how molecular function evolves across large protein family phylogenies. Here we describe a generalized protocol that integrates ancestral sequence reconstruction with structural homology modeling and structure-based molecular affinity prediction to characterize historical changes in protein function across families with thousands of individual sequences. We highlight key steps in the analysis protocol requiring particularly careful attention to avoid introducing potential errors as well as steps for which computationally efficient subroutines can be substituted for more intensive approaches, allowing researchers to scale the analysis up or down, depending on available resources and requirements for reproducibility and scientific rigor. In our view, this approach provides a compelling compliment to more laboratory-intensive procedures, generating important contextual information that can help guide detailed experiments.
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Dillman AR, Macchietto M, Porter CF, Rogers A, Williams B, Antoshechkin I, Lee MM, Goodwin Z, Lu X, Lewis EE, Goodrich-Blair H, Stock SP, Adams BJ, Sternberg PW, Mortazavi A. Comparative genomics of Steinernema reveals deeply conserved gene regulatory networks. Genome Biol 2015; 16:200. [PMID: 26392177 PMCID: PMC4578762 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-015-0746-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2015] [Accepted: 08/10/2015] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Parasitism is a major ecological niche for a variety of nematodes. Multiple nematode lineages have specialized as pathogens, including deadly parasites of insects that are used in biological control. We have sequenced and analyzed the draft genomes and transcriptomes of the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae and four congeners (S. scapterisci, S. monticolum, S. feltiae, and S. glaseri). RESULTS We used these genomes to establish phylogenetic relationships, explore gene conservation across species, and identify genes uniquely expanded in insect parasites. Protein domain analysis in Steinernema revealed a striking expansion of numerous putative parasitism genes, including certain protease and protease inhibitor families, as well as fatty acid- and retinol-binding proteins. Stage-specific gene expression of some of these expanded families further supports the notion that they are involved in insect parasitism by Steinernema. We show that sets of novel conserved non-coding regulatory motifs are associated with orthologous genes in Steinernema and Caenorhabditis. CONCLUSIONS We have identified a set of expanded gene families that are likely to be involved in parasitism. We have also identified a set of non-coding motifs associated with groups of orthologous genes in Steinernema and Caenorhabditis involved in neurogenesis and embryonic development that are likely part of conserved protein-DNA relationships shared between these two genera.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adler R Dillman
- Department of Nematology, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA.
| | - Marissa Macchietto
- Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
| | - Camille F Porter
- Department of Biology and Evolutionary Ecology Laboratories, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 84602, USA.
| | - Alicia Rogers
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA.
| | - Brian Williams
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA.
| | - Igor Antoshechkin
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA.
| | - Ming-Min Lee
- Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
| | - Zane Goodwin
- Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA.
| | - Xiaojun Lu
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
| | - Edwin E Lewis
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
| | - Heidi Goodrich-Blair
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
| | - S Patricia Stock
- Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
| | - Byron J Adams
- Department of Biology and Evolutionary Ecology Laboratories, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 84602, USA.
| | - Paul W Sternberg
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA.
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA.
| | - Ali Mortazavi
- Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
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De Laet J. Parsimony analysis of unaligned sequence data: maximization of homology and minimization of homoplasy, not minimization of operationally defined total cost or minimization of equally weighted transformations. Cladistics 2014; 31:550-567. [DOI: 10.1111/cla.12098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/21/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Jan De Laet
- Göteborgs Botaniska Trädgård; Carl Skottsbergs Gata 22A SE-413 19 Göteborg Sweden
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Mashimo Y, Beutel RG, Dallai R, Lee CY, Machida R. Embryonic development of Zoraptera with special reference to external morphology, and its phylogenetic implications (Insecta). J Morphol 2013; 275:295-312. [DOI: 10.1002/jmor.20215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2013] [Revised: 09/02/2013] [Accepted: 09/06/2013] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Yuta Mashimo
- Sugadaira Montane Research Center; University of Tsukuba; Sugadaira Kogen, Ueda Nagano 386-2204 Japan
| | - Rolf G. Beutel
- Institut für Spezielle Zoologie und Evolutionsbiologie mit Phyletischem Museum; Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena; Erbertstrasse 1 Jena 07743 Germany
| | - Romano Dallai
- Department of Life Sciences; University of Siena; Via A. Moro 2 Siena I-53100 Italy
| | - Chow-Yang Lee
- School of Biological Sciences; Universiti Sains Malaysia; Penang 11800 Malaysia
| | - Ryuichiro Machida
- Sugadaira Montane Research Center; University of Tsukuba; Sugadaira Kogen, Ueda Nagano 386-2204 Japan
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