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Calcineurin Gene Subfunctionalization and Swimming Behavior in Paramecium tetraurelia
Author(s) -
McKenna Strange Madigan,
Day Alex,
Fraga Dean,
Welker Jordan,
Gaines Ray,
Barrin William
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2018.32.1_supplement.526.10
Subject(s) - paramecium , biology , gene duplication , gene , genetics , genome , calcineurin , subfunctionalization , context (archaeology) , gene family , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , paleontology , surgery , transplantation
The protein phosphatase calcineurin (PP2B) plays a multifaceted role in the motility of the unicellular Paramecium tetraurelia . The Paramecium tetraurelia genome is the product of at least three whole genome duplications resulting in multiple ohnologs pairs for many genes in the Paramecium genome. The most recent duplication resulted in 7 ohnolog pairs that are virtually identical at the amino acid level. Each pair of ohnologs was tested for their role in the swimming behavior of Paramecium using RNAi to silence each ohnolog pair. The behavioral effects were tested in both wildtype and the mutant strain, Dancer, which displays exaggerated backward swimming due to a reduced ability to close the voltage dependent calcium channel after opening. The results suggest that the calcineurin ohnolog pairs are undergoing subfunctionalization. This conclusion is also supported by a real‐time rtPCR analysis of relative gene expression in log‐phase cells in which the different isoforms display different gene expression levels under these growth conditions. These results will be discussed in the context of gene evolution after duplication. Support or Funding Information The College of Wooster Sophomore Research Program This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .