Poster: Evolution

Abs # 788: Insights into 14-3-3 Evolution

Presenter:	Reyes, Matthew F., matt@astro.ufl.edu
Authors	Reyes, Matthew F. (A) (B)  Benner, Steven A. (A) (C)  Ferl, Robert J. (A) (B)
Affiliations:	(A): University of Florida (B): Program in Plant Molecular & Cellular Biology (C): Departments of Chemistry and of Anatomy & Cell Biology
Web Site:	http://www.hos.ufl.edu/Ferllab/

The 14-3-3s are a highly conserved family of proteins that participate in signal transduction primarily by binding specifically phosphorylated target proteins to complete signal-induced transitions in the target. Multiple 14-3-3s are present in every eukaryote in which they have been investigated, ranging from two genes in yeasts to 13 intact coding regions in Arabidopsis. Furthermore, an inspection of the current Arabidopsis genome indicates that there are more than 10,000 genes that encode potential 14-3-3 clients, leading to the impression that multiple 14-3-3 genes and thousands of potential clients present an untenable number of interaction combinations. A true comprehension of the specificity of each 14-3-3 isoform to their many potential clients requires additional detail about their functional, metabolic, and evolutionary relationships between each other. This presentation describes the use of specially developed bioinformatics tools that consider both DNA and amino acid sequences in order to calculate evolutionary distances based on the ratio of non-silent mutations to silent mutations between homologous proteins. This effort has yielded clues concerning what the ancestral plant 14-3-3 sequences were and what their roles might have been. The chronological order of duplication events between paralogous 14-3-3s has been assigned; moreover, orthology between different species has been identified. These duplications have been correlated to the geologic and paleontological records, permitting an understanding not only as to why these duplications occurred, but to also predict 14-3-3 isoform-client specificity through their shared evolutionary histories. This knowledge can guide future research into 14-3-3 interactions with other entities in vivo.