Do more complex organisms have a greater proportion of membrane proteins in their genomes?

Abstract

One may speculate that higher organisms require a proportionately greater abundance of membrane proteins within their genomes in order to furnish the requirements of differentiated cell types, compartmentalization, and intercellular signalling. With the recent availability of several complete prokaryotic genome sequences and sufficient progress in many eukaryotic genome sequencing projects, we seek to test this hypothesis. Using optimized hydropathy analysis of proteins in several, diverse proteomes, we show that organisms of the three domains of life-Eukarya, Eubacteria, and Archaea-have similar proportions of alpha-helical membrane proteins within their genomes and that these are matched by the complexity of the aqueous components.