Aquaporin evolution: a framework for orthology assignment and animal-plant integration

SOTO GABRIELA, ALLEVA KARINA, AMODEO GABRIELA, MUSCHIETTI JORGE Y AYUB NICOLÁS

Puerto Madryn

Congreso; SAIB; 2010

Sociedad Argentina de investigación bioquimica y biología molecular

Aquaporins (AQPs) comprise a diverse family of channel protein require to transport water and small solutes across cell membranes in the three domains of life. When we restrained the analysis to proteins with high aminoacid identity, we showed for the first time a complete congruence between AQPs and organismal trees. On the basis of this analysis, we defined twenty orthologous gene clusters in flowering species. We described specific conserved motifs for each subfamily and each clusters. The simultaneous assessment of motifs and phylogenetic trees for AQPs protein taken at random showed that the use of motifs is a powerful method for the automatic classification of plant AQPs. In animals, we defined four AQP subfamilies: AQP1-like, AQP8-like, AQP3-like and AQP12-like. These groups were related with plant AQPs: PIPs, TIPs, NIPs and SIP, respectively. This result suggests that the common ancestor of plants and animals had at least four AQP subfamilies. Finally, a new nomenclature based on evolution relationships is proposed.