Identification of a nematode chemosensory gene family
- Nansheng Chen*,†,
- Shraddha Pai*,
- Zhongying Zhao‡,
- Allan Mah‡,
- Rebecca Newbury§,
- Robert C. Johnsen‡,
- Zeynep Altun¶,
- Donald G. Moerman§,
- David L. Baillie‡, and
- Lincoln D. Stein*
- *Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724; ‡Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6; ¶Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461; and §Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3
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Communicated by Robert H. Waterston, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, November 15, 2004 (received for review June 15, 2004)
Abstract
Taking advantage of the recent availability of the whole genome sequence of Caenorhabditis briggsae, a closely related nematode to Caenorhabditis elegans, we have examined the chemosensory gene superfamily by using comparative genomic methods. We have identified a chemosensory gene family, serpentine receptor class ab (srab), which exists in both species with 25 members in C. elegans and 14 members in C. briggsae. More than 20% of these gene models are reannotated. The srab family is similar to, but distinct from, the previously described serpentine receptor class a (sra) family and shows a differential expansion in C. elegans similar to that previously described for sra. The cellular expression patterns for multiple members of the srab family in both phasmid neurons in the tail and amphid neurons in the head supports the conclusion that they are chemosensory genes and suggests that they may play a role in integrating chemosensory inputs from both ends of the organism. The expansion of both the srab and sra gene families in C. elegans relative to C. briggsae is due to multiple rounds of tandem duplication and translocation of individual genes.
Footnotes
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↵ † To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724. E-mail: chenn{at}cshl.org.
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Author contributions: N.C. and L.D.S. designed research; N.C., S.P., Z.Z., A.M., R.N., R.C.J., and Z.A. performed research; N.C., D.G.M., D.L.B., and L.D.S. analyzed data; and N.C. and L.D.S. wrote the paper.
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Abbreviations: sra, serpentine receptor class a; srab, serpentine receptor class ab; TM, transmembrane domain.
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Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
- Copyright © 2005, The National Academy of Sciences
