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Updated: Dec 20, 2025

A Bioinformatics Pipeline for Investigating Molecular Evolution and Gene Expression using RNA-seq
Published on: May 28, 2021
The evolution of ADAM gene family in eukaryotes
J S M Souza1, A B P Lisboa2, T M Santos3
1Biochemistry and Molecular Biology program, Institute of Health Sciences (ICS), Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador 40231-300, Brazil.
Abstract:
The ADAM (A Disintegrin And Metalloprotease) gene family encodes proteins with adhesion and proteolytic functions. ADAM proteins are associated with diseases like cancers. Twenty ADAM genes have been identified in humans. However, little is known about the evolution of the family. We analyzed the repertoire of ADAM genes in a vast number of eukaryotic genomes to clarify the main gene copy number expansions. For the first time, we provide compelling evidence that early-branching green algae (Mamiellophyceae) have ADAM genes, suggesting that they originated in the last common ancestor of eukaryotes, before the split of plants, fungi and animals. The ADAM family expanded in early metazoans, with the most significative gene expansion happening during the first steps of vertebrate evolution. We concluded that most of mammal ADAM diversity can be explained by gene duplications in early bone fish. Our data suggest that ADAM genes were lost early in green plant evolution.
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