Wang Shuai, Wei Wei, Luo Xuenong, Wang Sen, Hu Songnian, Cai Xuepeng
State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, China.
Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Gene. 2015 Mar 15;559(1):52-61. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2015.01.020. Epub 2015 Jan 14.
We performed genome-wide identifications and comparative genomic analyses of the predicted aspartic proteases (APs) from eight parasitic flatworms, focusing on their evolution, potentials as drug targets and expression patterns. The results revealed that: i) More members of family A01 were identified from the schistosomes than from the cestodes; some evidence implied gene loss events along the class Cestoda, which may be related to the different ways to ingest host nutrition; ii) members in family A22 were evolutionarily highly conserved among all the parasites; iii) one retroviral-like AP in family A28 shared a highly similar predicted 3D structure with the HIV protease, implying its potential to be inhibited by HIV inhibitor-like molecules; and iiii) retrotransposon-associated APs were extensively expanded among these parasites. These results implied that the evolutionary histories of some APs in these parasites might relate to adaptations to their parasitism and some APs might have potential serving as intervention targets.
我们对来自八种寄生扁虫的预测天冬氨酸蛋白酶（APs）进行了全基因组鉴定和比较基因组分析，重点关注它们的进化、作为药物靶点的潜力以及表达模式。结果显示：i）从血吸虫中鉴定出的A01家族成员比从绦虫中鉴定出的更多；一些证据表明在绦虫纲中存在基因丢失事件，这可能与摄取宿主营养的不同方式有关；ii）A22家族的成员在所有寄生虫中进化上高度保守；iii）A28家族中的一种逆转录病毒样AP与HIV蛋白酶具有高度相似的预测三维结构，这意味着它有可能被类HIV抑制剂分子抑制；以及iv）逆转座子相关的APs在这些寄生虫中广泛扩增。这些结果表明，这些寄生虫中一些APs的进化历史可能与它们对寄生生活的适应有关，并且一些APs可能具有作为干预靶点的潜力。
