Ayme-Southgate A, Vigoreaux J, Benian G, Pardue M L
Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Sep 15;88(18):7973-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.18.7973.
The sequences of twitchin and titin identify a superfamily of muscle proteins whose functions are not completely understood. In spite of their shared structural features, twitchin and titin appear to differ in function. Genetic and molecular evidence suggests that twitchin has a regulatory role in muscle contraction, whereas it has been proposed that titin has a structural function. We report here that Drosophila has a single-copy gene containing the two-motif amino acid sequence pattern that characterizes twitchin and titin. This gene appears to encode projectin, a muscle protein that is thought to play a structural role in asynchronous flight muscle but may have a role like that of twitchin in synchronous muscle. Thus Drosophila appears to be a case where the apparently diverged functions of twitchin and titin are encoded by a single gene.
肌动蛋白和肌联蛋白的序列确定了一个肌肉蛋白质超家族,其功能尚未完全明确。尽管肌动蛋白和肌联蛋白具有共同的结构特征,但它们的功能似乎有所不同。遗传和分子证据表明,肌动蛋白在肌肉收缩中具有调节作用,而有人提出肌联蛋白具有结构功能。我们在此报告,果蝇有一个单拷贝基因,其包含表征肌动蛋白和肌联蛋白的双基序氨基酸序列模式。该基因似乎编码投射蛋白,一种肌肉蛋白,被认为在异步飞行肌中起结构作用,但在同步肌中可能具有类似肌动蛋白的作用。因此,果蝇似乎是一个例子,其中肌动蛋白和肌联蛋白明显不同的功能由单个基因编码。