The Ectocarpus IMMEDIATE UPRIGHT gene encodes a member of a novel family of cysteine-rich proteins with an unusual distribution across the eukaryotes

Nicolas Macaisne, Fuli Liu, Delphine Scornet, Akira F. Peters, Agnieszka Lipinska, Marie-Mathilde Perrineau, Antoine Henry, Martina Strittmatter, Susana M. Coelho, J. Mark Cock

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)
27 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The sporophyte generation of the brown alga Ectocarpus sp. exhibits an unusual pattern of development compared with the majority of brown algae. The first cell division is symmetrical and the apical-basal axis is established late in development. In the immediate upright (imm) mutant, the initial cell undergoes an asymmetric division to immediately establish the apical-basal axis. We provide evidence which suggests that this phenotype corresponds to the ancestral state of the sporophyte. The IMM gene encodes a protein of unknown function that contains a repeated motif also found in the EsV-1-7 gene of the Ectocarpus virus EsV-1. Brown algae possess large families of EsV-1-7 domain genes but these genes are rare in other stramenopiles, suggesting that the expansion of this family might have been linked with the emergence of multicellular complexity. EsV-1-7 domain genes have a patchy distribution across eukaryotic supergroups and occur in several viral genomes, suggesting possible horizontal transfer during eukaryote evolution.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)409-418
Number of pages10
JournalDevelopment (Cambridge, England)
Volume144
Issue number3
Early online date31 Jan 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2017

Keywords

  • Algal Proteins
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Cysteine
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Transfer, Horizontal
  • Models, Genetic
  • Multigene Family
  • Mutation
  • Phaeophyta
  • Phylogeny
  • RNA Interference
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Viral Proteins
  • Journal Article

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