Explorando as origens primevas da sinapse através da genômica comparativa

Exploring the early origins of the synapse by comparative genomics

Kenneth S Kosik*

- Author Affiliations

Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5060, USA
(kosik@lifesci.ucsb.edu)

Abstract

One set of evolutionary features that has received less attention than the evolution of genes or species is the evolution of cellular machines, the self-contained structures in cells with dedicated functions. Here I suggest that domain expansion through shuffling, duplication, and changes in protein expression level are critical drivers in the evolution of cellular machines. Once established, evolutionary change in these cellular machines tends to occur by paralogy or expansion and modification of the existing core genes. A comparative genomics approach to one cellular machine—the post-synaptic complex—provided preliminary validation of these views. A comparative genomics approach to the entire cellulome may reveal the diversity of cellular machines and their inter-relationships.

Keywords:

demosponge porifera Amphimedon queenslandica post-synaptic scaffold proteins PDZ domain

Footnotes

One contribution of 10 to a Special Feature on ‘Brain evolution’.

Received October 13, 2008.

Accepted November 17, 2008.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright © 2008 The Royal Society

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