Evolution of the Cholesterol Biosynthesis Pathway in Animals

Tingting Zhang; Dongwei Yuan; Jun Xie; Yongxing Lei; Jianguo Li; Gangqi Fang; Ling Tian; Jiacheng Liu; Yingying Cui; Min Zhang; Youli Xiao; Yongzhen Xu; Jianzhen Zhang; Maoyan Zhu; Shuai Zhan; Sheng Li

doi:10.1093/molbev/msz167

Evolution of the Cholesterol Biosynthesis Pathway in Animals

Mol Biol Evol. 2019 Nov 1;36(11):2548-2556. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msz167.

Authors

Tingting Zhang^{1

2

3}, Dongwei Yuan^{1

3

4}, Jun Xie⁵, Yongxing Lei^{4

6}, Jianguo Li⁷, Gangqi Fang^{3

4}, Ling Tian⁸, Jiacheng Liu^{4

9}, Yingying Cui¹, Min Zhang², Youli Xiao⁶, Yongzhen Xu³, Jianzhen Zhang², Maoyan Zhu¹⁰, Shuai Zhan³, Sheng Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental Biology and Applied Technology, Institute of Insect Science and Technology, School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
² Research Institute of Applied Biology, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental and Evolutionary Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Institute of Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁷ Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China.
⁸ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Agro-animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding/Guangdong Provincial Sericulture and Mulberry Engineering Research Center, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
⁹ The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Innovation Center for Cell Signaling Network, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Paleobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China.

PMID: 31397867
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msz167

Abstract

Cholesterol plays essential roles in animal development and disease progression. Here, we characterize the evolutionary pattern of the canonical cholesterol biosynthesis pathway (CBP) in the animal kingdom using both genome-wide analyses and functional experiments. CBP genes in the basal metazoans were inherited from their last common eukaryotic ancestor and evolutionarily conserved for cholesterol biosynthesis. The genomes of both the basal metazoans and deuterostomes retain almost the full set of CBP genes, while Cnidaria and many protostomes have independently experienced multiple massive losses of CBP genes that might be due to the geologic events during the Ediacaran period, such as the appearance of an exogenous sterol supply and the frequent perturbation of ocean oxygenation. Meanwhile, the indispensable utilization processes of cholesterol potentially strengthened the maintenance of the complete set of CBP genes in vertebrates. These results strengthen both biotic and abiotic roles in the macroevolution of a biosynthesis pathway in animals.

Keywords: Ediacaran period; cholesterol biosynthesis pathway; gene loss; macroevolution.

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