Background Invertebrate and vertebrate GATA transcription factors play important roles in

Background Invertebrate and vertebrate GATA transcription factors play important roles in ectoderm and mesendoderm development, as well as in cardiovascular and blood cell fate specification. We have identified the complete GATA complement (53 genes) from a diverse sampling of protostome genomes, including six arthropods, three lophotrochozoans, and two nematodes. Reciprocal best hit BLAST analysis suggested orthology of these GATA genes to either the ancestral bilaterian GATA123 or the GATA456 class. Using molecular phylogenetic analyses of gene sequences, together with conserved synteny and comparisons of intron/exon structure, we inferred the evolutionary relationships among these 53 protostome GATA homologs. In particular, we resolved the orthology and evolutionary birth order of all arthropod GATA homologs including the highly divergent Drosophila GATA genes. Conclusion Our combined analyses confirm that all protostome GATA transcription factor genes are members of either the GATA123 or GATA456 class, and indicate that there have been multiple protostome-specific duplications of GATA456 homologs. Three GATA456 genes exhibit linkage in multiple protostome species, suggesting that this gene cluster arose by tandem duplications from an ancestral GATA456 gene. Within arthropods this GATA456 cluster appears orthologous and widely conserved. Furthermore, the intron/exon structures of the arthropod GATA456 orthologs suggest a distinct order of gene duplication events. At present, however, the evolutionary relationship to similarly linked GATA456 paralogs in lophotrochozoans remains unclear. Our study shows how sampling of additional genomic data, especially from less derived and interspersed protostome taxa, can be used to resolve the orthologous relationships within more divergent gene families. Background GATA transcription factors perform conserved and essential roles during animal development, including germ layer specification, hematopoiesis, and cardiogenesis [1]. Nevertheless, homologs in the GATA gene family have undergone significant divergence in both sequence and gene number in different animal phyla, making it difficult to resolve orthologous relationships of individual family members [2,3]. For example, the number of GATA paralogs C homologs within an individual genome C varies substantially between protostomes and deuterostomes. Most vertebrate genomes possess six GATA paralogs, whereas the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster has only JNKK1 five and the nematode/roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans eleven. Reconstructing the evolution and the ancestral developmental roles of these genes requires a framework of orthologous relationships among GATA homologs. Previous studies have identified two classes of GATA homologs within deuterostomes [2,3]. Basal invertebrate deuterostomes, including echinoderms, urochordates, and cephalochordates, possess only single GATA123 and GATA456 orthologs. Most vertebrates possess three paralogs from each class, likely from two whole genome duplication events that occurred during the evolution of jawed vertebrates. Within the three vertebrate GATA123 paralogs, the vertebrate GATA-2 and -3 genes are more closely related to each other than to the GATA-1 gene. Likewise, the vertebrate GATA-4 and -6 genes are both more closely related to each other than to the GATA-5 gene [3]. Thus two genome duplications, together with the losses of one GATA-1 like paralog and one GATA-5 like paralog, can account for the number of genes in each vertebrate GATA class. While the evolution of GATA factors within the deeper branches of the deuterostome phylogeny is well understood, it has been more difficult to reconstruct the evolution of protostome GATA factors. We recently published data suggesting that the last common protostome/deuterostome ancestor had at least two GATA factors with distinct roles in early germ layer development: an endomesodermal GATA456 gene and an ectodermal GATA123 gene [2]. In this analysis, at least one representative was identified 894187-61-2 IC50 from each class in multiple protostome genomes, and the germ layer specific expression for each class was documented in a basal lophotrochozoan, the 894187-61-2 IC50 polychaete annelid Platynereis dumerilii. However, orthologous relationships for the more degenerate C. elegans and Drosophila GATA transcription factors remained unclear. Here, we report an analysis of the complete complement of GATA factors from several newly available protostome genomes. We have identified 894187-61-2 IC50 GATA factors from nine diverse protostomes by directly searching databases from recently conducted whole genome sequencing efforts. We have conducted 894187-61-2 IC50 phylogenetic analyses using predicted protein sequences, conserved chromosomal gene order, and conserved intron/exon boundaries to better understand the evolution of protostome GATA factors. Our results provide evidence for protostome-specific expansions of GATA456 paralogs and enable us to infer the evolutionary relationships of even the most divergent Drosophila GATA factors. Results The complement of GATA transcription factors from newly sequenced protostome genomes To further investigate the evolution of GATA transcription factors within protostomes, we obtained GATA gene sequences from nine newly sequenced and phylogenetically informative protostome genomes (see Materials and Methods). These include five arthropods [Ixodes scapularis (tick), Daphnia pulex (water flea), Tribolium castaneum (beetle), Apis mellifera (bee), and Anopheles gambiae (mosquito)], one nematode (Caenorhabditis briggsae), and three lophotrochozoan [Lottia gigantea (limpet), Capitella capitata (polychaete), Schmidtea mediterranea (flatworm)] genomes. For almost all of these collected.

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