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Updated: Apr 16, 2026

Site-Specific Lysine Lactylation via Genetic Code Expansion in E. coli and Mammalian Cells
Published on: February 24, 2026
Genomic organization and evolution of ruminant lysozyme c genes
1Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Banting and Best Diabetes Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. david.irwin@utoronto.ca.
Abstract:
Ruminant stomach lysozyme is a long established model of adaptive gene evolution. Evolution of stomach lysozyme function required changes in the site of expression of the lysozyme c gene and changes in the enzymatic properties of the enzyme. In ruminant mammals, these changes were associated with a change in the size of the lysozyme c gene family. The recent release of near complete genome sequences from several ruminant species allows a more complete examination of the evolution and diversification of the lysozyme c gene family. Here we characterize the size of the lysozyme c gene family in extant ruminants and demonstrate that their pecoran ruminant ancestor had a family of at least 10 lysozyme c genes, which included at least two pseudogenes. Evolutionary analysis of the ruminant lysozyme c gene sequences demonstrate that each of the four exons of the lysozyme c gene has a unique evolutionary history, indicating that they participated independently in concerted evolution. These analyses also show that episodic changes in the evolutionary constraints on the protein sequences occurred, with lysozyme c genes expressed in the abomasum of the stomach of extant ruminant species showing the greatest levels of selective constraints.
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