Patterns of conservation and diversification in the fungal polarization network

Journal Article (2018)
Author(s)

Eveline T. Diepeveen (TU Delft - BN/Liedewij Laan Lab)

T. Gehrmann (TU Delft - Pattern Recognition and Bioinformatics, Leiden University Medical Center)

Thomas Abeel (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, TU Delft - Pattern Recognition and Bioinformatics)

Valérie Pourquié (Student TU Delft)

L. Laan (TU Delft - BN/Liedewij Laan Lab)

Research Group
BN/Liedewij Laan Lab
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evy121
More Info
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Publication Year
2018
Language
English
Research Group
BN/Liedewij Laan Lab
Issue number
7
Volume number
10
Pages (from-to)
1765-1782

Abstract

The combined actions of proteins in networks underlie all fundamental cellular functions. Deeper insights into the dynamics of network composition across species and their functional consequences are crucial to fully understand protein network evolution. Large-scale comparative studieswith high phylogenetic resolution arenowfeasible through the recent rise in available genomic data sets of both model and nonmodel species. Here, we focus on the polarity network, which is universally essential for cell proliferation and studied in great detail in the model organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We examine 42 proteins, directly related to cell polarization, across 298 fungal strains/species to determine the composition of the network and patterns of conservation and diversification.We observe strong protein conservation for a group of 23 core proteins: >95%of all examined strains/species possess at least 14 of these core proteins, albeit in varying compositions, and non of the individual core proteins is 100%conserved. We find high levels of variation in prevalence and sequence identity in the remaining 19 proteins, resulting in distinct lineage-specific compositions of the network in the majority of strains/species.We show that the observed diversification in network composition correlateswith lineage, lifestyle, and genetic distance. Yeast, filamentous and basal unicellular fungi, formdistinctive groups based on these analyses, with substantial differences to their polarization network.Our study shows that the fungal polarization network is highlydynamic, even between closely related species, and that functional conservation appears to be achieved by varying the specific components of the fungal polarization repertoire.

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