Evolutionary Origin and History of Antifreeze Glycoprotein Gene in the Northern Cod Fishes (Gadidae): Creating Sense from Non-Sense DNA?

北方鳕鱼（Gadidae）抗冻糖蛋白基因的进化起源和历史：从无义 DNA 中创造有义？

• 批准号: 0919496
• 负责人: Chi-Hing Cheng
• 金额: $ 64.91万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-01 至 2013-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0919496&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Evolutionary; Origin; History; Antifreeze; Glycoprotein

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The evolutionary adaptation to polar climates can provide a model for adaptations to climate changes in general. Today's frigid polar waters are inhospitable for most bony fishes, but some can live in freezing waters because they have evolved antifreeze proteins. The antifreeze glycoproteins (AFGP) of northern/Arctic cod fishes bind to invading ice crystals, preventing the fish from freezing. Novel proteins are commonly thought to evolve from a pre-existing protein gene rather than from other kinds of DNA. The evolution of the cod AFGP gene may defy this long-held paradigm. The codfish genes analyzed thus far suggest that the repetitive DNA encoding the AFGP arose from repeatedly copying a snippet of ancestral, non-protein coding DNA. Furthermore the AFGP trait appears in two cold-water codfish groups that are distant cousins, suggesting the AFGP gene evolved twice, in separate branches of this family tree. To test these two intertwined evolutionary hypotheses, the distribution of the AFGP trait will be mapped onto the codfish family tree. Then the AFGP genomic regions will be compared for two distant species bearing complete AFGP function, and with the corresponding region in a related species without AFGP function. If the antifreeze gene did not evolve from coding DNA, the result would indicate that evolutionary novelty has more sources than previously thought. The principal investigator will train graduate and undergraduate students in cutting edge genomics technology and science. The sequence data from the project will also be utilized in a "Find a Gene" workshop for a group of high school students for basic training in bioinformatics and genome data management.

该奖项根据 2009 年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法 111-5）提供资金。对极地气候的进化适应可以为适应一般气候变化提供一个模型。如今寒冷的极地水域不适合大多数硬骨鱼，但有些硬骨鱼可以生活在冰冷的水域中，因为它们进化出了抗冻蛋白。北方/北极鳕鱼的抗冻糖蛋白（AFGP）与入侵的冰晶结合，防止鱼被冻结。人们普遍认为新蛋白质是从预先存在的蛋白质基因而不是其他种类的 DNA 进化而来的。鳕鱼 AFGP 基因的进化可能违背了这种长期存在的范式。迄今为止分析的鳕鱼基因表明，编码 AFGP 的重复 DNA 源自重复复制祖先的非蛋白质编码 DNA 片段。 此外，AFGP 性状出现在两个远亲冷水鳕鱼群体中，表明 AFGP 基因在该家谱的不同分支中进化了两次。 为了检验这两个相互交织的进化假设，AFGP 性状的分布将被映射到鳕鱼家谱上。然后，将两个具有完整 AFGP 功能的远缘物种的 AFGP 基因组区域与不具有 AFGP 功能的相关物种的相应区域进行比较。 如果抗冻基因不是从编码 DNA 进化而来，那么结果将表明进化新颖性的来源比之前想象的更多。 首席研究员将对研究生和本科生进行尖端基因组学技术和科学方面的培训。 该项目的序列数据还将用于为一群高中生举办的“寻找基因”研讨会，以进行生物信息学和基因组数据管理的基础培训。