Molecular evolution of the ribonuclease superfamily

• Published in: Progress in biophysics and molecular biology Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 165 - 192
• Main Authors: Beintema, Jaap J., Schüller, Cornelis, Irie, Masachika, Carsana, Antonella
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 1988; Elsevier
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Analytical, structural and metabolic biochemistry; Animals; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Evolution; Enzymes and enzyme inhibitors; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Hydrolases; Molecular Sequence Data; Protein Conformation; Ribonucleases - antagonists & inhibitors; Ribonucleases - genetics; Ribonucleases - metabolism; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; Molecular evolution; Review; Ribonuclease; Enzyme
• ISSN: 0079-6107; 1873-1732
• DOI: 10.1016/0079-6107(88)90001-6

The genome of multi-cellular eukaryotic organisms contains both structural genes expressed in all cells and genes that are expressed in specialized tissues only. However, a clear distinction is not always possible as a specific gene product may be present in large quantities in one tissue and in much smaller amounts elsewhere in the same organism. In addition, the functions of a gene product may differ at different localities. Furthermore, gene duplications may give rise to the expression of different but structurally related gene products in different tissues. Here the molecular evolution of the ribonuclease superfamily will be reviewed as an illustration of the occurrence of these general evolutionary patterns.