Tettweiler Gritta, Kowanda Michelle, Lasko Paul, Sonenberg Nahum, Hernández Greco
Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 1B1.
Comp Funct Genomics. 2012;2012:960420. doi: 10.1155/2012/960420. Epub 2012 Jun 13.
Insects are part of the earliest faunas that invaded terrestrial environments and are the first organisms that evolved controlled flight. Nowadays, insects are the most diverse animal group on the planet and comprise the majority of extant animal species described. Moreover, they have a huge impact in the biosphere as well as in all aspects of human life and economy; therefore understanding all aspects of insect biology is of great importance. In insects, as in all cells, translation is a fundamental process for gene expression. However, translation in insects has been mostly studied only in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. We used all publicly available genomic sequences to investigate in insects the distribution of the genes encoding the cap-binding protein eIF4E, a protein that plays a crucial role in eukaryotic translation. We found that there is a diversity of multiple ortholog genes encoding eIF4E isoforms within the genus Drosophila. In striking contrast, insects outside this genus contain only a single eIF4E gene, related to D. melanogaster eIF4E-1. We also found that all insect species here analyzed contain only one Class II gene, termed 4E-HP. We discuss the possible evolutionary causes originating the multiplicity of eIF4E genes within the genus Drosophila.
昆虫是最早侵入陆地环境的动物群的一部分，也是最早进化出可控飞行能力的生物。如今，昆虫是地球上最多样化的动物群体，包含了已描述的现存动物物种的大部分。此外，它们对生物圈以及人类生活和经济的各个方面都有巨大影响；因此，了解昆虫生物学的各个方面非常重要。在昆虫中，和所有细胞一样，翻译是基因表达的一个基本过程。然而，昆虫中的翻译大多仅在模式生物黑腹果蝇中进行研究。我们利用所有公开可用的基因组序列，研究昆虫中编码帽结合蛋白eIF4E的基因的分布，该蛋白在真核生物翻译中起关键作用。我们发现，果蝇属内存在多种编码eIF4E异构体的直系同源基因。与之形成鲜明对比的是，该属以外的昆虫仅含有一个与黑腹果蝇eIF4E - 1相关的eIF4E基因。我们还发现，这里分析的所有昆虫物种仅含有一个II类基因，称为4E - HP。我们讨论了果蝇属内eIF4E基因多样性可能的进化原因。
