Molecular phylogeny of the kelch-repeat superfamily reveals an expansion of BTB/kelch proteins in animals

Abstract

Background: The kelch motif is an ancient and evolutionarily-widespread sequence motif of 44-56 amino acids in length. It occurs as five to seven repeats that form a beta-propeller tertiary structure. Over 28 kelch-repeat proteins have been sequenced and functionally characterised from diverse organisms spanning from viruses, plants and fungi to mammals and it is evident from expressed sequence tag, domain and genome databases that many additional hypothetical proteins contain kelch-repeats. In general, kelch-repeat beta-propellers are involved in protein-protein interactions, however the modest sequence identity between kelch motifs, the diversity of domain architectures, and the partial information on this protein family in any single species, all present difficulties to developing a coherent view of the kelch-repeat domain and the kelch-repeat protein superfamily. To understand the complexity of this superfamily of proteins, we have analysed by bioinformatics the complement of kelch-repeat proteins encoded in the human genome and have made comparisons to the kelch-repeat proteins encoded in other sequenced genomes.

Results: We identified 71 kelch-repeat proteins encoded in the human genome, whereas 5 or 8 members were identified in yeasts and around 18 in C. elegans, D. melanogaster and A. gambiae. Multiple domain architectures were identified in each organism, including previously unrecognised forms. The vast majority of kelch-repeat domains are predicted to form six-bladed beta-propellers. The most prevalent domain architecture in the metazoan animal genomes studied was the BTB/kelch domain organisation and we uncovered 3 subgroups of human BTB/kelch proteins. Sequence analysis of the kelch-repeat domains of the most robustly-related subgroups identified differences in beta-propeller organisation that could provide direction for experimental study of protein-binding characteristics.

Conclusion: The kelch-repeat superfamily constitutes a distinct and evolutionarily-widespread family of beta-propeller domain-containing proteins. Expansion of the family during the evolution of multicellular animals is mainly accounted for by a major expansion of the BTB/kelch domain architecture. BTB/kelch proteins constitute 72 % of the kelch-repeat superfamily of H. sapiens and form three subgroups, one of which appears the most-conserved during evolution. Distinctions in propeller blade organisation between subgroups 1 and 2 were identified that could provide new direction for biochemical and functional studies of novel kelch-repeat proteins.

Figure 1

The kelch motif and the β-propeller fold. A, Consensus sequence of the kelch motif. Compiled from [2] and [3]. The sequence motif is shown in relation to the four β-sheets of a propeller blade structure, as determined for the kelch motifs of fungal galactose oxidase [4]. In the consensus, G= glycine, Y = tyrosine, W = tryptophan, s = small residue; l = large residue; h = hydrophobic residue. B, Structure of a kelch-repeat propeller blade. A single blade from the crystal structure of fungal galactose oxidase (1GOF) is shown. β sheets 1–4 are colored as in panel A. The N- and C-termini join to adjacent blades. As indicated by the mapping of the consensus amino acids onto the blade, the most highly-conserved residues are located in the β-sheets. In various examples of β-propeller proteins, the intra- and inter-blade loops have variable sequences and contribute to protein-protein interactions [3]. C, Structure of the kelch-repeat β-propeller domain of fungal galactose oxidase (1GOF). β-sheets 1–4 in each blade are colored as in panel A. As indicated, this β-propeller contains seven blades. The β-4 strand of blade 7 is derived from the amino-terminus of the domain and thus closes the circular structure.

Figure 2

Relationships between human BTB/kelch proteins. The amino acid sequences of the 38 full-length human BTB/kelch proteins predicted to contain six-bladed β-propellers were aligned in CLUSTALW and are presented in Phylip Drawgram for A) full-length sequences; B) kelch-repeat domains only; C) BTB domains only, with shade codes for the three identified subgroups as indicated. Asterisk in panel A indicate known actin-binding BTB/kelch proteins. Panel B shows the robust grouping of a set of sequences from subgroup 2, termed subgroup 2A.

Figure 3

Multiple sequence alignment of subgroup 1 human BTB/kelch proteins. The kelch-repeat domains of the 15 subgroup 1 BTB/kelch proteins were aligned in CLUSTALW to generate a 50 % identity threshold level consensus sequence. The alignments are presented for each repeat, with the repeat unit assigned according to the 1GOF structure. The four β-strands in each repeat are color-coded as in Fig. 1A. Alignments are presented in Boxshade: black shading indicates identical amino acids, grey shading indicates similar amino acids and white background indicates unrelated amino acids.

Figure 4

Multiple sequence alignment of subgroup 2A human BTB/kelch proteins. The kelch-repeat domains of the 10 subgroup 2A BTB/kelch proteins were aligned in CLUSTALW to generate a 50 % identity threshold level consensus sequence. The alignments are presented for each repeat, with the repeat unit assigned according to the 1GOF structure. The four β-strands in each repeat are color-coded as in Fig. 1A. Alignments are presented in Boxshade: black shading indicates identical amino acids, grey shading indicates similar amino acids and white background indicates unrelated amino acids.

Figure 5

Relationships of consensus kelch-motifs to propeller blade structure. A, Side view of single propeller blade structure from galactose oxidase (1GOF). β-strands are color-coded as in Fig. 1A and the nomenclature for the intra- and inter-blade loops is indicated. B, Alignment of consensus kelch motifs derived from BTB/kelch subgroups 1 and 2A to blade structure, demonstrating distinctions in the 2–3 loop size and charge distribution. The position of each β-strand is indicated.

Figure 6

Prevalence of selected kelch-repeat protein domain architectures in eucaryotes.The bar charts represent the number of kelch-repeat proteins with the indicated domain architectures encoded in the proteomes of H. sapiens (Hs), D. melanogaster (Dm), C. elegans (Ce), S. pombe (Sp) and A. thaliana (At).