Does apicortin, a characteristic protein of apicomplexan parasites and placozoa, occur in Eumetazoa?

Ferenc Orosz

doi:10.1515/ap-2018-0071

Article

Does apicortin, a characteristic protein of apicomplexan parasites and placozoa, occur in Eumetazoa?

Ferenc Orosz

Published/Copyright: July 4, 2018

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From the journal Acta Parasitologica Volume 63 Issue 3

Abstract

Apicortin is a characteristic protein of apicomplexan parasites which has recently been identified in their free-living cousins, chromerids as well. The placozoan Trichoplax adhaerens is the only animal possessing this protein and apicortin is one of its most abundant proteins. The recently published transcriptome of the cnidarian Porites astreoides contains an apicortin-like sequence. Other cnidarians do not have it, thus it is its first occurrence not only in this phylum but also in Eumetazoa. However, its translated amino acid sequence is more similar to apicomplexan apicortins than to that of T. adhaerens, the GC ratio is much higher than either the genome-wide GC ratio of P. astreoides or that of the placozoan apicortin gene, and phylogenetic analyses suggest that this apicortin has an apicomplexan origin. Although these data might be indicative for a horizontal gene transfer event, we should be cautious to state it; it is more probable that it is a contamination from a gregarine, a marine Apicomplexa. Thus T. adhaerens remains the only animal where the presence of apicortin is proved.

Keywords: Apicomplexa; Chromerida; Cnidaria; p25alpha domain; genetic contamination; horizontal gene transfer

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Dr. Judit Oláh for the careful reading of the manuscript.

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Supporting Information

SI 1. Tentative amino acid sequences of Porites astreoides and Aleochara curtula TPPPs. Numbers indicate the order of nucleotides in the GEHP01438502 and GATW02010314 TSA sequences of P. astreoides and Aleochara curtula, respectively. Gray background indicates the possible initiation codons and the stop codons