The macrodomain family:Rethinking an ancient domain from evolutionary perspectives  

作　　者：LI XiaoLei WU ZhiQiang HAN WeiDong 

机构地区：[1]Department of Molecular Biology,Institute of Basic Medicine,School of Life Sciences,General Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army

出　　处：《Chinese Science Bulletin》2013年第9期953-960,共8页

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31201033,31270820,81071617 and 81230061);the Ministry of Science and Technology of China(2012CB518103 and 2012CB518105)

摘　　要：The reasons why certain domains evolve much slower than others is unclear.The notion that functionally more important genes evolve more slowly than less important genes is one of the few commonly believed principles of molecular evolution.The macrodomain(also known as the X domain) is an ancient,slowly evolving and highly conserved structural domain found in proteins throughout all of the kingdoms and was first discovered nearly two decades ago with the isolation and cloning of macroH2A1.Macrodomains,which are functionally promiscuous,have been studied intensively for the past decade due to their importance in the regulation of cellular responses to DNA damage,chromatin remodeling,transcription and tumorigenesis.Recent structural,phylogenetic and biological analyses,however,suggest the need for some reconsideration of the evolutionary advantage of concentrating such a plethora of diverse functions into the macrodomain and of how macrodomains could perform so many functions.In this article,we focus on macrodomains that are evolving slowly and broadly discuss the potential relationship between the biological evolution and functional diversity of macrodomains.The reasons why certain domains evolve much slower than others is unclear. The notion that functionally more important genes evolve more slowly than less important genes is one of the few commonly believed principles of molecular evolution. The macrodomain （also known as the X domain） is an ancient, slowly evolving and highly conserved structural domain found in proteins throughout all of the kingdoms and was first discovered nearly two decades ago with the isolation and cloning of macroH2A1. Macrodomains, which are functionally promiscuous, have been studied intensively for the past decade due to their importance in the regulation of cellular responses to DNA damage, chromatin remodeling, transcription and tumorigenesis. Recent structural, phylogenetic and biological analyses, however, suggest the need for some reconsideration of the evolutionary advantage of concentrating such a plethora of diverse functions into the macrodomain and of how macrodomains could perform so many functions. In this article, we focus on macrodomains that are evolving slowly and broadly discuss the potential relationship between the biological evolution and functional diversity of macrodomains.

关 键 词：基因进化 宏畴 家庭 DNA损伤 染色质重塑 生物学分析 功能多样性 分子进化 

分 类 号：R346[医药卫生—基础医学]