This website was constructed as a class project for Genetics 564, an undergraduate Genetics course at UW-Madison.
Aldolase B Protein Homology
The diagram below represents the similarity in aldolase B protein sequence from various species. Here we can see that humans and chimpanzees share the closest similarity, followed closely by the mouse. The high degree of similarity between all of these animals, some in different classes, indicates that Aldolase B is highly conserved among species, a reflection of its essential role in fructose metabolism [].
The Glycolytic domain (see Protein Domains) is well-conserved among homologs, and the LCR (low complexity region) is also conserved in some species. The two most notable observations about this diagram are that first, approximately 60 amino acids are missing at the end (the C-terminus) of the mouse and zebrafish proteins. Second, because of this missing C-terminus region, the LCR is not present in these species, although it is present at least once in every other species (twice in fruit flies). This brings up the question of how important these regions of the aldolase B protein are in other homologs. If they are unnecessary for the proper function of mouse and zebrafish aldolase B, they might also be unnecessary in other species. I have designed an experiment to answer this question in my Specific Aims.
Reference Sequences
Human:
Accession number: BAF83484 FASTA Protein name: fructose-bisphosphate aldolase B Chimpanzee: Accession number: XP_001136159 FASTA Protein name: fructose-bisphosphate aldolase B isoform 3 |
References
1. Genetics Home Reference. (2014). ALDOB. Retrieved February 3, 2014 from http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/ALDOB
Protein homology diagram created by Maddy Ford, 2014
Protein homology diagram created by Maddy Ford, 2014