Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
Trends Genet. 2017 Mar;33(3):171-182. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2017.01.002. Epub 2017 Feb 5.
Coloration is one of the most conspicuous traits that varies among organisms. Carotenoid pigments are responsible for many of the red, orange, and yellow colors in the natural world and, at least for most animals, these molecules must be acquired from their environment. Identifying genes important for carotenoid transport, deposition, and processing has been difficult, in contrast to the well-characterized genes involved in the melanogenesis pathways. We review recent progress in the genetics of carotenoid processing, advances owing in part to the application of high-throughput sequencing data. We focus on examples from several classes of genes coding for scavenger receptors, β-carotene oxygenases, and ketolases. We also review comparative studies that have revealed several important findings in the evolution of these genes. Namely, that they are conserved across deep phylogenetic timescales, are associated with gene/genome duplications, and introgression has contributed to their movement between several taxa.
颜色是生物之间最显著的特征之一。类胡萝卜素色素是自然界中许多红色、橙色和黄色的原因，至少对于大多数动物来说，这些分子必须从环境中获得。与黑色素生成途径中特征明确的基因相比，鉴定对类胡萝卜素运输、沉积和加工重要的基因一直很困难。我们回顾了类胡萝卜素加工遗传学的最新进展，部分归功于高通量测序数据的应用。我们重点介绍了来自几种基因的例子，这些基因编码为清道夫受体、β-胡萝卜素加氧酶和酮基转移酶。我们还回顾了比较研究，这些研究揭示了这些基因进化中的几个重要发现。也就是说，它们在深远的进化时间尺度上是保守的，与基因/基因组加倍有关，并且基因渗入有助于它们在几个分类群之间的移动。
