小柯机器人

美国洛克菲勒大学Erich D. Jarvis、Constantina Theofanopoulou等研究人员合作报道催产素-血管毒素配体和受体家族的通用命名法。相关论文于2021年4月28日发表于国际学术期刊《自然》。

研究人员表示，催产素（OXT；此后称为OT）和精氨酸加压素或血管收缩素（AVP或VT；此后称为VT）是神经递质配体，它们通过特定的受体起作用来控制多种功能。

研究人员对涵盖所有主要脊椎动物谱系的35个物种进行了基因组分析，包括脊椎动物基因组计划新近获得的高度相近群体。研究人员的发现支持以下观点：OT和VT是由局部重复产生的相邻旁系同源基因，并通过脊椎动物起源附近的DNA转座因子推断出其中VT保留了更多的亲本序列。研究人员在脊椎动物中发现了六个主要的催产素-血管毒素受体。研究人员提出，所有这些受体中的全部六个都起源于通过全基因组和大片段重复的组合与无脊椎动物的共同祖先共享的单个受体。

研究人员提出了一种基于进化关系的通用命名法用于编码这些受体的基因，其中在脊椎动物中，这些基因被赋予相同的直系同源名称，而彼此之间则被赋予旁系同源名称。这种命名法避免了由于前基因组时代的命名差异和不完整的基因组组装而造成的混乱，进一步加深了人们对这些基因进化的理解，有助于跨物种发现结果的转化，并可以作为其他基因家族的模型。

附：英文原文

Title: Universal nomenclature for oxytocin–vasotocin ligand and receptor families

Author: Constantina Theofanopoulou, Gregory Gedman, James A. Cahill, Cedric Boeckx, Erich D. Jarvis

Issue&Volume: 2021-04-28

Abstract: Oxytocin (OXT; hereafter OT) and arginine vasopressin or vasotocin (AVP or VT; hereafter VT) are neurotransmitter ligands that function through specific receptors to control diverse functions1,2. Here we performed genomic analyses on 35 species that span all major vertebrate lineages, including newly generated high-contiguity assemblies from the Vertebrate Genomes Project3,4. Our findings support the claim5 that OT (also known as OXT) and VT (also known as AVP) are adjacent paralogous genes that have resulted from a local duplication, which we infer was through DNA transposable elements near the origin of vertebrates and in which VT retained more of the parental sequence. We identified six major oxytocin–vasotocin receptors among vertebrates. We propose that all six of these receptors arose from a single receptor that was shared with the common ancestor of invertebrates, through a combination of whole-genome and large segmental duplications. We propose a universal nomenclature based on evolutionary relationships for the genes that encode these receptors, in which the genes are given the same orthologous names across vertebrates and paralogous names relative to each other. This nomenclature avoids confusion due to differential naming in the pre-genomic era and incomplete genome assemblies, furthers our understanding of the evolution of these genes, aids in the translation of findings across species and serves as a model for other gene families.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03040-7

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03040-7

Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html