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Related Experiment Videos

Evolution of selenium utilization traits.

Héctor Romero1, Yan Zhang, Vadim N Gladyshev

  • 1Laboratorio de Organización y Evolución del Genoma, Dpto. de Biología Celular y Molecular, Instituto de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Iguá 4225, Montevideo, CP 11400, Uruguay. eletor@fcien.edu.uy

Genome Biology
|August 10, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Selenium utilization in biology, including the 21st amino acid selenocysteine (Sec), involves specific genes. This study maps these selenium utilization genes across species, revealing ancient origins and dynamic evolution through horizontal gene transfer.

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Area of Science:

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Selenium is an essential trace element vital for numerous biological processes.
  • Selenocysteine (Sec), the 21st amino acid, is incorporated into proteins via a specialized co-translational mechanism involving specific genes (SelA, SelB, SelC) and mRNA structures (SECIS elements).
  • Selenium also exists as 2-selenouridine, a modified tRNA base synthesized by YbbB.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the evolutionary history and distribution of genes involved in selenium utilization.
  • To create a global map of Sec-decoding and 2-selenouridine synthesis traits across different species.
  • To identify instances of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in the evolution of these selenium-related traits.

Main Methods:

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  • Analysis of completely sequenced genomes for the presence of selenium utilization genes (selA, selB, selC, selD, ybbB).
  • Phylogenetic inference of these genes and comparison with organismal phylogenies.
  • Mapping the presence/absence patterns of selenium utilization genes to construct a species map.

    • Main Results:

    • SelB and SelC genes are reliable indicators of the Sec-decoding trait.
    • SelD is crucial for overall selenium utilization and is found in conjunction with other selenium-related genes.
    • A comprehensive species map illustrates the distribution of Sec-decoding and 2-selenouridine synthesis, with identified HGT events.

    Conclusions:

    • Selenium utilization traits have ancient origins and can be maintained independently.
    • Evolutionary processes, including speciation, gene loss, and HGT, shape the distribution of these traits.
    • The loss of selenium utilization traits is not necessarily permanent, as evidenced by HGT.