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Phylogeny and Evolution of the SERA Multigene Family in the Genus Plasmodium

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Abstract

The serine repeat antigen gene family of Plasmodium falciparum (Pf-SERA) consists of nine gene members. By sequence similarity search, 45 genes were identified to be homologous to the Pf-SERA genes in the ongoing seven Plasmodium genome sequencing project databases for the species: P. reichenowi, P. vivax, P. knowlesi, P. yoelii, P. berghei, P. chabaudi, and P. gallinaceum. In combination with additional PCR-based sequencing, we found that almost all SERA genes in each species were aligned in a tandem cluster and sandwiched between two conserved hypothetical protein genes, except for P. reichenowi, which could not be confirmed. The minimum and maximum numbers of clustered genes were 2 and 12 for P. gallinaceum and P. vivax, respectively. The best tree of the maximum likelihood analysis demonstrated that all Plasmodium SERA homologues, except for SERA1 of P. gallinaceum (Pg-SERA1), can be classified into four groups, represented by Pf-SERA5, Pf-SERA6, Pf-SERA7, and Pf-SERA8. Genes in the Pf-SERA8 group, although highly divergent and distantly related to the sequences of other groups, were not pseudogenes. P. berghei SERA5, the counterpart of Pf-SERA8, was expressed in the mosquito stage. P. gallinaceum lacks the orthologues to Pf-SERA5, Pf-SERA6, and Pf-SERA7, suggesting that P. gallinaceum diverged from a common ancestor of all eight Plasmodium species examined before gene duplication(s) occurred to generate these paralogous groups. Here, we reveal an evolutionary trail of SERA gene cluster in the genus Plasmodium and discuss a phylogeny of Plasmodium species from the viewpoint of the evolution of a multigene family.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. T. Hashimoto for discussion and critical reading of the manuscript. We also thank Dr. N. M. Palacpac for critical reading of the munuscript. Dr. K. Tanabe kindly provided gDNA of P. gallinaceum. Sequence data for P. reichenowi, P. knowlesi, P. berghei, P. chabaudi, P. gallinaceum, and T. annulata were obtained from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute web site, at http://www.sanger.ac.uk/. Preliminary sequence data on P. vivax were obtained from The Institute for Genomic Research web site, at http://www.tigr.org. Sequencing was accomplished with support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Phylogenetic analyses were done using the computing system at Genome Information Research Center, Osaka University. This work was supported by grants-in-aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (No. 13226058) and for Scientific Research A (No. 17256003) and by a CLUSTER grant from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan, and Takeda Science Foundation to T.H.

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  1. Meiji Arai

    Present address: Department of Immunology and Parasitology, School of Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyusyu, Fukuoka, 807-8555, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Protozoology, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, 3-1 Yamadaoka Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Nobuko Arisue & Toshihiro Horii

  2. Department of Medical Zoology, Jichi Medical School, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, 329-0498, Japan

    Makoto Hirai, Meiji Arai & Hiroyuki Matsuoka

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  1. Nobuko Arisue
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Correspondence to Toshihiro Horii.

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Arisue, N., Hirai, M., Arai, M. et al. Phylogeny and Evolution of the SERA Multigene Family in the Genus Plasmodium . J Mol Evol 65, 82–91 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-006-0253-1

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