Williams Jeffrey G, Noegel Angelika A, Eichinger Ludwig
School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, MSI/WTB Complex, Dow Street, Dundee DD1 5EH. Scotland, UK.
Trends Genet. 2005 Jul;21(7):392-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2005.05.002.
The recent release of the Dictyostelium genome sequence is important because Dictyostelium has become a much-favoured model system for cell and developmental biologists. The sequence has revealed a remarkably high total number of approximately 12 500 genes, only a thousand fewer than are encoded by Drosophila. Previous protein-sequence comparisons suggested that Dictyostelium is evolutionarily closer to animals and fungi than to plants, and the global protein sequence comparison, now made possible by the genome sequence, confirms this. This review focuses on several classes of proteins that are shared by Dictyostelium and animals: a highly sophisticated array of microfilament components, a large family of G-protein-coupled receptors and a diverse set of SH2 domain-containing proteins. The presence of these proteins strengthens the case for a relatively close relationship with animals and extends the range of problems that can be addressed using Dictyostelium as a model organism.
盘基网柄菌基因组序列的近期公布意义重大，因为盘基网柄菌已成为细胞生物学家和发育生物学家极为青睐的模式系统。该序列显示其基因总数约为12500个，数量相当可观，仅比果蝇编码的基因少一千个。先前的蛋白质序列比较表明，相较于植物，盘基网柄菌在进化上与动物和真菌更为接近，而现在借助基因组序列得以进行的全球蛋白质序列比较证实了这一点。本综述聚焦于盘基网柄菌和动物共有的几类蛋白质：一系列高度复杂的微丝成分、一大类G蛋白偶联受体以及多种含SH2结构域的蛋白质。这些蛋白质的存在进一步证明了盘基网柄菌与动物之间存在较为密切的关系，并拓展了以盘基网柄菌作为模式生物可解决的问题范围。
