Characterization of mammalian Lipocalin UTRs in silico: Predictions for their role in post-transcriptional regulation.

The Lipocalin family is a group of homologous proteins characterized by its big array of functional capabilities. As extracellular proteins, they can bind small hydrophobic ligands through a well-conserved β-barrel folding. Lipocalins evolutionary history sprawls across many different taxa and shows...

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Main Authors: Andres Mejias, Sergio Diez-Hermano, Maria D Ganfornina, Gabriel Gutierrez, Diego Sanchez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213206
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author Andres Mejias
Sergio Diez-Hermano
Maria D Ganfornina
Gabriel Gutierrez
Diego Sanchez
author_facet Andres Mejias
Sergio Diez-Hermano
Maria D Ganfornina
Gabriel Gutierrez
Diego Sanchez
author_sort Andres Mejias
collection DOAJ
description The Lipocalin family is a group of homologous proteins characterized by its big array of functional capabilities. As extracellular proteins, they can bind small hydrophobic ligands through a well-conserved β-barrel folding. Lipocalins evolutionary history sprawls across many different taxa and shows great divergence even within chordates. This variability is also found in their heterogeneous tissue expression pattern. Although a handful of promoter regions have been previously described, studies on UTR regulatory roles in Lipocalin gene expression are scarce. Here we report a comprehensive bioinformatic analysis showing that complex post-transcriptional regulation exists in Lipocalin genes, as suggested by the presence of alternative UTRs with substantial sequence conservation in mammals, alongside a high diversity of transcription start sites and alternative promoters. Strong selective pressure could have operated upon Lipocalins UTRs, leading to an enrichment in particular sequence motifs that limit the choice of secondary structures. Mapping these regulatory features to the expression pattern of early and late diverging Lipocalins suggests that UTRs represent an additional phylogenetic signal, which may help to uncover how functional pleiotropy originated within the Lipocalin family.
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spelling doaj.art-5f16032593f943a18d1c7bcfa9c689392022-12-21T22:51:15ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032019-01-01143e021320610.1371/journal.pone.0213206Characterization of mammalian Lipocalin UTRs in silico: Predictions for their role in post-transcriptional regulation.Andres MejiasSergio Diez-HermanoMaria D GanforninaGabriel GutierrezDiego SanchezThe Lipocalin family is a group of homologous proteins characterized by its big array of functional capabilities. As extracellular proteins, they can bind small hydrophobic ligands through a well-conserved β-barrel folding. Lipocalins evolutionary history sprawls across many different taxa and shows great divergence even within chordates. This variability is also found in their heterogeneous tissue expression pattern. Although a handful of promoter regions have been previously described, studies on UTR regulatory roles in Lipocalin gene expression are scarce. Here we report a comprehensive bioinformatic analysis showing that complex post-transcriptional regulation exists in Lipocalin genes, as suggested by the presence of alternative UTRs with substantial sequence conservation in mammals, alongside a high diversity of transcription start sites and alternative promoters. Strong selective pressure could have operated upon Lipocalins UTRs, leading to an enrichment in particular sequence motifs that limit the choice of secondary structures. Mapping these regulatory features to the expression pattern of early and late diverging Lipocalins suggests that UTRs represent an additional phylogenetic signal, which may help to uncover how functional pleiotropy originated within the Lipocalin family.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213206
spellingShingle Andres Mejias
Sergio Diez-Hermano
Maria D Ganfornina
Gabriel Gutierrez
Diego Sanchez
Characterization of mammalian Lipocalin UTRs in silico: Predictions for their role in post-transcriptional regulation.
PLoS ONE
title Characterization of mammalian Lipocalin UTRs in silico: Predictions for their role in post-transcriptional regulation.
title_full Characterization of mammalian Lipocalin UTRs in silico: Predictions for their role in post-transcriptional regulation.
title_fullStr Characterization of mammalian Lipocalin UTRs in silico: Predictions for their role in post-transcriptional regulation.
title_full_unstemmed Characterization of mammalian Lipocalin UTRs in silico: Predictions for their role in post-transcriptional regulation.
title_short Characterization of mammalian Lipocalin UTRs in silico: Predictions for their role in post-transcriptional regulation.
title_sort characterization of mammalian lipocalin utrs in silico predictions for their role in post transcriptional regulation
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213206
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