Fish antifreeze protein origin in sculpins by frameshifting within a duplicated housekeeping gene

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) are found in a variety of marine cold-water fishes where they prevent freezing by binding to nascent ice crystals. Their diversity (types I, II, III and antifreeze glycoproteins), as well as their scattered taxonomic distribution hint at their complex evolutionary history. In particular, type I AFPs appear to have arisen in response to the Late Cenozoic Ice Age that began ~ 34 million years ago via convergence in four different groups of fish that diverged from lineages lacking this AFP. The progenitor of the alanine-rich α-helical type I AFPs of sculpins has now been identified as lunapark, an integral membrane protein of the endoplasmic reticulum. Following gene duplication and loss of all but three of the 15 exons, the final exon, which encoded a glutamate- and glutamine-rich segment, was converted to an alanine-rich sequence by a combination of frameshifting and mutation. Subsequent gene duplications produced numerous isoforms falling into four distinct groups. The origin of the flounder type I AFP is quite different. Here, a small segment from the original antiviral protein gene was amplified and the rest of the coding sequence was lost, while the gene structure was largely retained. The independent origins of type I AFPs with up to 83% sequence identity in flounder and sculpin demonstrate strong convergent selection at the level of protein sequence for alanine-rich single alpha helices that bind to ice. Recent acquisition of these AFPs has allowed sculpins to occupy icy seawater niches with reduced competition and predation from other teleost species.