Institute of Biochemistry, Medical Faculty, University of Leipzig, Germany.
Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2011 Jan 15;331(2):170-8. doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2010.07.012. Epub 2010 Aug 12.
Once introduced into the very early eukaryotic blueprint, seven-transmembrane receptors soon became the central and versatile components of the evolutionary highly successful G protein-coupled transmembrane signaling mechanism. In contrast to all other components of this signal transduction pathway, G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) evolved in various structural families, eventually comprising hundreds of members in vertebrate genomes. Their functional diversity is in contrast to the conserved transmembrane core and the invariant set of intracellular signaling mechanisms, and it may be the interplay of these properties that is the key to the evolutionary success of GPCR. The GPCR repertoires retrieved from extant vertebrate genomes are the recent endpoints of this long evolutionary process. But the shaping of the fine structure and the repertoire of GPCR is still ongoing, and signatures of recent selection acting on GPCR genes can be made visible by modern population genetic methods. The very dynamic evolution of GPCR can be analyzed from different perspectives: at the levels of sequence comparisons between species from different families, orders and classes, and at the level of populations within a species. Here, we summarize the main conclusions from studies at these different levels with a specific focus on the more recent evolutionary dynamics of GPCR.
一旦被引入到早期真核生物蓝图中，七跨膜受体很快就成为进化中高度成功的 G 蛋白偶联跨膜信号转导机制的核心和多功能组成部分。与该信号转导途径的所有其他成分相比，G 蛋白偶联受体 (GPCR) 在各种结构家族中进化，最终在脊椎动物基因组中包含数百个成员。它们的功能多样性与保守的跨膜核心和不变的细胞内信号转导机制形成对比，正是这些特性的相互作用可能是 GPCR 进化成功的关键。从现存脊椎动物基因组中检索到的 GPCR 系列是这一漫长进化过程的最近终点。但是，GPCR 的精细结构和系列的形成仍在继续，并且现代群体遗传学方法可以揭示作用于 GPCR 基因的近期选择的特征。GPCR 的非常动态的进化可以从不同的角度进行分析：在来自不同科、目和纲的物种之间的序列比较水平上，以及在一个物种内的种群水平上。在这里，我们总结了这些不同水平上的研究的主要结论，特别关注 GPCR 的更近期进化动态。
