Absence of N-terminal acetyltransferase diversification during evolution of eukaryotic organisms

作者：Rathore Om Singh; Faustino Alexandra; Prudencio Pedro; Van Damme Petra; Cox Cymon J; Martinho Rui Goncalo

来源：Scientific Reports, 2016, 6(1): 21304.

DOI：10.1038/srep21304

Protein N-terminal acetylation is an ancient and ubiquitous co-translational modification catalyzed by a highly conserved family of N-terminal acetyltransferases (NATs). Prokaryotes have at least 3 NATs, whereas humans have six distinct but highly conserved NATs, suggesting an increase in regulatory complexity of this modification during eukaryotic evolution. Despite this, and against our initial expectations, we determined that NAT diversification did not occur in the eukaryotes, as all six major human NATs were most likely present in the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA). Furthermore, we also observed that some NATs were actually secondarily lost during evolution of major eukaryotic lineages; therefore, the increased complexity of the higher eukaryotic proteome occurred without a concomitant diversification of NAT complexes.

• 出版日期2016-2-10