Positive Selection of Tyrosine Loss in Metazoan Evolution.

Tan CS, Pasculescu A, Lim WA, Pawson T, Bader GD, Linding R.

Science. 2009 Jul 9. [Epub ahead of print]

PMID: 19589966

DOI: 10.1126/science.1174301

John Nash showed that within a complex system individuals are best off if they make the best decision that they can, taking into account the decisions of the other individuals. Here, we investigate if similar principles influence the evolution of signaling networks in multicellular animals. Specifically, by analyzing a set of metazoan species, we observe a striking negative correlation of genomically encoded tyrosine content with biological complexity (as measured by the number of cell types in each organism). We discuss how this observed tyrosine loss correlates with the expansion of tyrosine kinases in the evolution of the metazoan lineage and how it may relate to the optimization of signaling systems in multicellular animals. We propose that this phenomenon illustrates genome-wide adaptive evolution to accommodate beneficial genetic perturbation.

[PubMed]

[Publisher Abstract]

[Publisher Reprint]