Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.1.26.9 (ribonuclease)
 6,589 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The human genes encoding salivary amylase (AMY1) and pancreatic amylase (AMY2) are nearly identical in structure and sequence. We have used ribonuclease protection studies to identify the functional gene copies in this multigene family. Riboprobes derived from each gene were hybridized to RNA from human pancreas, parotid and liver. The sizes of the protected fragments demonstrated that both pancreatic genes are expressed in pancreas. One of the pancreatic genes, AMY2B, is also transcribed at a low level in liver, but not from the promoter used in pancreas. AMY1 transcripts were detected in parotid, but not in pancreas or liver. Unexpected fragments protected by liver RNA led to the discovery that the 5' regions of the five human amylase genes contain a processed gamma-actin pseudogene. The promoter and start site for transcription of AMY1 are recently derived from the 3' untranslated region of gamma-actin. In addition, insertion of an endogenous retrovirus has interrupted the gamma-actin pseudogene in four of the five amylase genes.
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PMID:Expression of the human amylase genes: recent origin of a salivary amylase promoter from an actin pseudogene. 245 67

A genomic sequence approximately 5 kb in length designated the alpha-1-antitrypsin-related gene (ATR), showing considerable homology to the human alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) gene, was identified 10 kb downstream of the authentic AAT gene. The AAT and ATR genes were introduced separately into L-cells by transfection in order to establish a method for distinguishing between expression of the two genes. RNA probes from the cloned ATR region were then used in a ribonuclease protection assay against RNA from a range of human adult and fetal tissues. No evidence of expression of ATR was found, indicating that this region is probably a pseudogene.
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PMID:The human alpha-1-antitrypsin-related sequence gene: isolation and investigation of its expression. 247 Mar 31

Phylogenetic analysis, based on the primary structures of mammalian pancreatic-type ribonucleases, indicated that gene duplication events, which occurred during the evolution of ancestral ruminants, gave rise to the three paralogous enzymes present in the bovine species. Herein we report data that demonstrate the existence of the orthologues of the bovine pancreatic, seminal, and cerebral ribonucleases coding sequences in the genomes of giraffe and sheep. The "seminal" sequence is a pseudogene in both species. We also report an analysis of the transcriptional expression of ribonuclease genes in sheep tissues. The data presented support a model for positive selection acting on the molecular evolution of ruminant ribonuclease genes.
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PMID:Molecular evolution of genes encoding ribonucleases in ruminant species. 858 29

Bovine seminal ribonuclease (RNase) diverged from pancreatic RNase after a gene duplication ca. 35 million years ago. Members of the seminal RNase gene family evidently remained as unexpressed pseudogene for much of its evolutionary history. Between 5 and 10 million years ago, however, after the divergence of kudu but before the divergence of ox, evidence suggests that the pseudogene was repaired and expressed. Intriguingly, detailed analysis of the sequences suggests that the repair may have involved gene conversion, transfer of information from the pancreatic gene to the RNase pseudogene. Further, the ratio of non-silent to silent substitutions suggests that the pancreatic RNases are divergently evolving under functional constraints, the seminal RNase pseudogenes are diverging under no functional constraints, while the genes expressed in the seminal plasma are evolving extremely rapidly in their amino acid sequences, as if to fulfil a new physiological role.
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PMID:Pseudogenes in ribonuclease evolution: a source of new biomacromolecular function? 860 93

We have characterized four novel murine ribonuclease genes that, together with the murine eosinophil-associated ribonucleases 1 and 2, form a distinct and unusual cluster within the RNase A gene superfamily. Three of these genes (mR-3, mR-4, mR-5) include complete open reading frames, encoding ribonucleases with eight cysteines and appropriately spaced histidines (His11 and His124) and lysine (Lys35) that are characteristic of this enlarging protein family; the fourth sequence encodes a non-functional pseudogene (mR-6P). Although the amino acid sequence similarities among these murine ribonucleases varies from 60 to 94%, they form a unique cluster, as each sequence is found to be more closely related to another of this group than to either murine angiogenin or to murine pancreatic ribonuclease. Interestingly, the relationship between the six genes in this 'mR cluster' and the defined lineages of the RNase A gene family could not be determined by amino acid sequence homology, suggesting the possibility that there are one or more additional ribonuclease lineages that have yet to be defined. Although the nature of the evolutionary constraints promoting this unusual expansion and diversification remain unclear, the implications with respect to function are intriguing.
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PMID:Molecular cloning of four novel murine ribonuclease genes: unusual expansion within the ribonuclease A gene family. 933 52

Human adipose tissue is known to have 17 beta-oxidoreductase activity, interconverting estrone (E1) and estradiol (E2), as well as androstenedione (A) and testosterone (T). We examined both the subcutaneous abdominal and intra-abdominal (visceral) adipose tissue of women for expression of types 1, 2, and 3 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17 beta-HSD) using ribonuclease (RNase) protection assay and RT-PCR/Southern blotting. Type 1 17 beta-HSD, which encodes the enzyme responsible for the conversion of E1 to E2 in the placenta and ovary, was expressed in the subcutaneous abdominal and intra-abdominal adipose tissue of women, but the messenger RNA transcripts were predominantly incompletely spliced and therefore unlikely to encode an active protein. A pseudogene for type 1 17 beta-HSD was also expressed in these tissues, but messenger RNA transcripts were again unspliced. Type 2 17 beta-HSD, which encodes an enzyme that can catalyze the conversion of T to A and E2 to E1, was expressed in both the subcutaneous abdominal and intra-abdominal adipose tissue of women. Type 3 17 beta-HSD was also expressed in adipose tissue from both sites studied. Type 3 17 beta-HSD encodes the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of A to T in the testis and also converts E1 to E2. Together with aromatase, which is known to be expressed in adipose tissue, the expression of types 2 and 3 17 beta-HSD indicates that sex steroid production in the adipose tissue of women is a complex process. The association of visceral obesity with the development of insulin resistance and dyslipidaemia raises the question of the role of steroid production in adipose tissue in the pathogenesis of these disorders.
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PMID:Expression of types 1, 2, and 3 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase in subcutaneous abdominal and intra-abdominal adipose tissue of women. 943 39

Molecular evolutionary analyses of mammalian ribonucleases have shown that gene duplication events giving three paralogous genes occurred in ruminant ancestors. The enzymes of the bovine species encoded by these genes, isolated from pancreas, brain and seminal vesicles, present similar enzymological properties but distinct structural features. In other ruminant species, genomic sequences orthologous to the bovine genes of pancreas and brain ribonucleases encode active enzymes. In mammalian species other than ruminant artiodactyls, only one gene encoding ribonuclease of the pancreatic type is generally present. In this work, we describe a differential pattern of transcriptional expression of the pancreas and brain ribonuclease genes in the ox species and report transcription of the human ribonuclease gene in brain as well as in pancreas and in mammary gland. We also report the molecular cloning of the gene encoding the bovine seminal ribonuclease in which the structural organization already described for the two paralogous genes is conserved. The seminal RNAase is exclusively expressed in seminal vesicles of Bos taurus, whereas in other ruminant species, the orthologous sequence is a pseudogene. Previous studies from a number of research groups demonstrated that, unlike other mammalian ribonucleases, the seminal enzyme is a covalent dimer, and its unique quaternary structure correlates with special biological activities. The major determinant of dimer formation, i.e. the presence of two adjacent cysteine residues, is absent in the pseudogenes. We advance the hypothesis that the differentiation of distinct expression patterns could represent an important evolutionary determinant for the genes encoding pancreas and brain ribonucleases in ruminants, whereas the differentiation of a quaternary structure endowed with new biological functions could be the main determinant for the evolutionary success of the seminal gene in the bovine species.
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PMID:The differential pattern of tissue-specific expression of ruminant pancreatic type ribonucleases may help to understand the evolutionary history of their genes. 1002 61

Bovine seminal ribonuclease (BS-RNase) is an interesting enzyme both for functional and structural reasons. The enzyme is the product of a gene duplication that occurred in an ancestral ruminant. It is possible to demonstrate the presence of seminal-type genes in all other investigated ruminant species, but they are not expressed and show features of pseudogenes. In this paper we report the determination of two pancreatic and one seminal-type ribonuclease gene sequences of swamp-type water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). The two pancreatic sequences encode proteins with identical amino acid sequences as previously determined for the enzymes isolated from swamp-type and river-type water buffalo, respectively. The seminal-type sequence has no pseudogene features and codes for an enzyme with no unusual features compared with the active bovine enzyme, except for the replacement of one of the cysteines which takes part in the two intersubunit disulfide bridges. However, Western blotting demonstrates the presence of only small amounts of the pancreatic enzymes in water buffalo semen, suggesting that also in this species the seminal-type sequence is not expressed. But it is still possible that the gene is expressed somewhere else in the body or during development. Reconstruction of seminal-type ribonuclease sequences in ancestors of Bovinae and Bovidae indicates no serious abnormalities in the encoded proteins and leads us to the hypothesis that the ruminant seminal-type ribonuclease gene has not come to expression during most of its evolutionary history, but did not exhibit a high evolutionary rate that is generally observed in pseudogenes.
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PMID:Seminal-type ribonuclease genes in ruminants, sequence conservation without protein expression? 1023 79

A retroprocessed pseudogene (retropseudogene) descended from the gene encoding ribonuclease (RNase) H1 has been found in ape genomes that preserves a splice junction mutation event that altered the carboxyl-terminal end of the enzyme. The GT --> GC transition mutant at the 5' splice junction of RNase H1 exon 7/intron 7 led to the absence of exon 8 and more than 1 kb of intron 7 sequence being substituted. Comparison of source gene and pseudogene sequences indicates that the retrotranscription event occurred 19 million years ago. Present in these sequences is an in-frame stop and several available polyadenylation signals, suggesting that the mutant allele could have been translated. At the present time, the genetic fossil is the only evidence that the mutation ever occurred, and thus represents an archival marker of an ancient genetic event in primate evolution.
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PMID:An ancient RNase H1 splice junction mutant preserved in a 19-million-year-old genetic fossil in ape genomes. 1522 Mar 93

Pancreatic ribonuclease (RNASE1) is a digestive enzyme that has been one of the key models in studies of evolutionary innovation and functional diversification. It has been believed that the RNASE1 gene duplications are correlated with the plant-feeding adaptation of foregut-fermenting herbivores. Here, we characterized RNASE1 genes from Caniformia, which has a simple digestive system and lacks microbial digestion typical of herbivores, in an unprecedented scope based on both gene sequence and tissue expression analyses. Remarkably, the results yielded new hypotheses regarding the evolution and the function of Caniformia RNASE1 genes. Four independent gene duplication events in the families of superfamily Musteloidea, including Procyonidae, Ailuridae, Mephitidae and Mustelidae, were recovered, rejecting previous Mustelidae-specific duplication hypothesis, but supporting Musteloidea duplication hypothesis. Moreover, our analyses revealed pronounced differences among the RNASE1 gene copies regarding their selection pressures, pI values and tissue expression patterns, suggesting the differences in their physiological functions. Notably, the expression analyses detected the transcription of a RNASE1 pseudogene in several tissues, raising the possibility that pseudogenes are also a potential source during the RNase functional diversification. In sum, the present work demonstrated a far more complex and intriguing evolutionary pattern and functional diversity of mammalian ribonuclease than previously thought.
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PMID:Evolutionary and functional novelty of pancreatic ribonuclease: a study of Musteloidea (order Carnivora). 2486 Nov 5


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