Genomic view of the evolution of the complement system

The recent accumulation of genomic information of many representative animals has made it possible to trace the evolution of the complement system based on the presence or absence of each complement gene in the analyzed genomes. Genome information from a few mammals, chicken, clawed frog, a few bony fish, sea squirt, fruit fly, nematoda and sea anemone indicate that bony fish and higher vertebrates share practically the same set of complement genes. This suggests that most of the gene duplications that played an essential role in establishing the mammalian complement system had occurred by the time of the teleost/mammalian divergence around 500 million years ago (MYA). Members of most complement gene families are also present in ascidians, although they do not show a one-to-one correspondence to their counterparts in higher vertebrates, indicating that the gene duplications of each gene family occurred independently in vertebrates and ascidians. The C3 and factor B genes, but probably not the other complement genes, are present in the genome of the cnidaria and some protostomes, indicating that the origin of the central part of the complement system was established more than 1,000 MYA

Orphan receptor GPR37L1 contributes to the sexual dimorphism of central cardiovascular control

BACKGROUND: Over 100 mammalian G protein-coupled receptors are yet to be matched with endogenous ligands; these so-called orphans are prospective drug targets for the treatment of disease. GPR37L1 is one such orphan, abundant in the brain and detectable as mRNA in the heart and kidney. GPR37L1 ablation was reported to cause hypertension and left ventricular hypertrophy, and thus, we sought to further define the role of GPR37L1 in blood pressure homeostasis. METHODS: We investigated the cardiovascular effects of GPR37L1 using wild-type (GPR37L1wt/wt) and null (GPR37L1KO/KO) mice established on a C57BL/6J background, both under baseline conditions and during AngII infusion. We profiled GPR37L1 tissue expression, examining the endogenous receptor by immunoblotting and a β-galactosidase reporter mouse by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: GPR37L1 protein was abundant in the brain but not detectable in the heart and kidney. We measured blood pressure in GPR37L1wt/wt and GPR37L1KO/KO mice and found that deletion of GPR37L1 causes a female-specific increase in systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressures. When challenged with short-term AngII infusion, only male GPR37L1KO/KO mice developed exacerbated left ventricular hypertrophy and evidence of heart failure, while the female GPR37L1KO/KO mice were protected from cardiac fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Despite its absence in the heart and kidney, GPR37L1 regulates baseline blood pressure in female mice and is crucial for cardiovascular compensatory responses in males. The expression of GPR37L1 in the brain, yet absence from peripheral cardiovascular tissues, suggests this orphan receptor is a hitherto unknown contributor to central cardiovascular control

Proteomic Analysis of the Myocardium in Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy

Background: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is characterized by a complex phenotype that is only partly explained by the biological effects of individual genetic variants. The aim of this study was to use proteomic analysis of myocardial tissue to explore the post genomic phenotype. Methods: Label-free proteomic analysis was used initially to compare protein profiles in myocardial samples from eleven patients with HCM undergoing surgical myectomy with control samples from six healthy unused donor hearts. Differentially expressed proteins of interest were validated in myocardial samples from 65 unrelated individuals [HCM (n=51), controls (n=7) and aortic stenosis (n=7)] by the development and use of targeted multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) based triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Results: In this exploratory study, 1586 proteins were identified with 151 proteins differentially expressed in HCM samples compared to controls (p<0.05). Protein expression profiling showed that many proteins identified in the initial discovery study were associated with metabolism, muscle contraction, calcium regulation and oxidative stress. Proteins down-regulated in HCM versus controls included creatine kinase M-type, Fructose-bisphosphate aldolase A and phosphoglycerate mutase (p<0.001). Proteins up-regulated in HCM included lumican, carbonic anhydrase 3, desmin, alpha actin skeletal and four and half LIM domain protein 1 (p<0.01). Myocardial lumican concentration correlated with left atrial area (rho 0.34, p=0.015), late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (P=0.03) and the presence of a pathogenic sarcomere mutation (p=0.04). Conclusion: The myocardial proteome of HCM provides supporting evidence for dysregulation of metabolic and structural proteins. The finding that lumican is raised in HCM hearts provides insight into the myocardial fibrosis that characterizes this disease

Tropomodulins and tropomyosins: working as a team

Actin filaments are major components of the cytoskeleton in eukaryotic cells and are involved in vital cellular functions such as cell motility and muscle contraction. Tropomyosin is an alpha-helical, coiled coil protein that covers the grooves of actin filaments and stabilizes them. Actin filament length is optimized by tropomodulin, which caps the slow growing (pointed end) of thin filaments to inhibit polymerization or depolymerization. Tropomodulin consists of two structurally distinct regions: the N-terminal and the C-terminal domains. The N-terminal domain contains two tropomyosin-binding sites and one tropomyosin-dependent actin-binding site, whereas the C-terminal domain contains a tropomyosin-independent actin-binding site. Tropomodulin binds to two tropomyosin molecules and at least one actin molecule during capping. The interaction of tropomodulin with tropomyosin is a key regulatory factor for actin filament organization. The binding efficacy of tropomodulin to tropomyosin is isoform-dependent. The affinities of tropomodulin/tropomyosin binding influence the proper localization and capping efficiency of tropomodulin at the pointed end of actin filaments in cells. Tropomodulin and tropomyosin are crucial constituents of the actin filament network, making their presence indispensable in living cells. Here we describe how a small difference in the sequence of the tropomyosin-binding sites of tropomodulin may result in dramatic change in localization of Tmod in muscle cells or morphology of non-muscle cells. We also suggest most promising directions to study and elucidate the role of Tmod-TM interaction in formation and maintenance of sarcomeric and cytoskeletal structure