PUBLICATION

Ligand binding was acquired during evolution of nuclear receptors

Authors
Escriva, H., Safi, R., Hanni, C., Langlois, M.C., Saumitou-Laprade, P., Stehelin, D., Capron, A., Pierce, R., and Laudet, V.
ID
ZDB-PUB-000104-11
Date
1997
Source
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America   94(13): 6803-6808 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Escriva, Hector, Laudet, Vincent, Safi, Rachid
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Evolution, Molecular*
  • Humans
  • Ligands
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear/genetics*
  • Sequence Analysis
PubMed
9192646 Full text @ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Abstract
The nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily comprises, in addition to ligand-activated transcription factors, members for which no ligand has been identified to date. We demonstrate that orphan receptors are randomly distributed in the evolutionary tree and that there is no relationship between the position of a given liganded receptor in the tree and the chemical nature of its ligand. NRs are specific to metazoans, as revealed by a screen of NR-related sequences in early- and non-metazoan organisms. The analysis of the NR gene duplication pattern during the evolution of metazoans shows that the present NR diversity arose from two waves of gene duplications. Strikingly, our results suggest that the ancestral NR was an orphan receptor that acquired ligand-binding ability during subsequent evolution.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping