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Evolution of new protein function: recombinational enhancer Fis originated by horizontal gene transfer from the transcriptional regulator NtrC
Author(s) -
Morett Enrique,
Bork Peer
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(98)00888-6
Subject(s) - horizontal gene transfer , gene , operon , biology , gene duplication , genetics , open reading frame , enhancer , function (biology) , lineage (genetic) , phylogenetic tree , gene expression , escherichia coli , peptide sequence
New protein function is thought to evolve mostly by gene duplication and divergence. Here we present phylogenetic evidence that the multifunctional protein Fis of the γ proteobacterial species derived from the COOH‐terminal domain of an ancestral α proteobacterial NtrC transcriptional regulatory protein. All of the known enterobacterial fis genes are preceded by an open reading frame, named yhdG , that is highly similar to nifR3 , a gene that forms an operon with ntrC in several α proteobacterial species. Thus, we propose that yhdG and fis were acquired by a lineage ancestral to the γ proteobacteria in a single horizontal gene transfer event, and later diverged to their present functions.