%0 Journal Article
%T Bioinformatic analysis of CaBP/calneuron proteins reveals a family of highly conserved vertebrate Ca2+-binding proteins
%A Hannah V McCue
%A Lee P Haynes
%A Robert D Burgoyne
%J BMC Research Notes
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1756-0500-3-118
%X We have carried out a bioinformatic analysis to determine when members of this family arose and the conserved aspects of the protein family. Sequences of human members of the family obtained from GenBank were used in Blast searches to identify corresponding proteins encoded in other species using searches of non-redundant proteins, genome sequences and mRNA sequences. Sequences were aligned and compared using ClustalW. Some families of Ca2+-binding proteins are known to show a progressive expansion in gene number as organisms increase in complexity. In contrast, the results for CaBPs and calneurons showed that a full complement of CaBPs and calneurons are present in the teleost fish Danio rerio and possibly in cartilaginous fish. These findings suggest that the entire family of genes may have arisen at the same time during vertebrate evolution. Certain members of the family (for example the short form of CaBP1 and calneuron 1) are highly conserved suggesting essential functional roles.The findings support the designation of the calneurons as a distinct sub-family. While the gene number for CaBPs/calneurons does not increase, a distinctive evolutionary change in these proteins in vertebrates has been an increase in the number of splice variants present in mammals.Many aspects of cellular function are regulated by changes in the concentration of intracellular free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) [1]. Increased [Ca2+]i leads to changes in the Ca2+ loading of various Ca2+-binding proteins [2]. In the case of those proteins that act as Ca2+ sensors, Ca2+ binding results in a significant conformational change that can expose sites for the interaction of target proteins [3]. Regulation of the function of the target proteins results in a wide range of physiological changes. Ca2+ signals in cells can vary in their amplitude, timing and spatial localisation [4,5] and this in part contributes to how changes in the concentration of a single ion can lead to a multitude of physiological outcomes.
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/3/118