Evolution of vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) metabolism by gain and loss of genes

Tsuyoshi Tanaka*, Yoshio Tateno, Takashi Gojobori

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

73 Scopus citations

Abstract

Vitamin B6 (VB6) functions as a cofactor of many diverse enzymes in amino acid metabolism. Three metabolic pathways for pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP; the active form of VB6) are known: the de novo pathway, the salvage pathway, and the fungal type pathway. Most unicellular organisms and plants biosynthesize VB6 using one or two of these three biosynthetic pathways. However, animals such as insects and mammals do not possess any of the pathways and, thus, need to intake VB6 in their diet to survive. It is conceivable that breakdowns of these pathways occurred in the evolutionary lineages of insects and mammals, and one of the major reasons for this would be the loss of pertinent genes. We studied the evolution of VB6 biosynthesis from the view of the gain and loss of 10 pertinent genes in 122 species whose genome sequences were completely determined. The results revealed that each gene in the pathways was lost more than once in the entire evolutionary lineages of the 122 species. We also found the following three points regarding the evolution of PLP biosynthesis: (1) the breakdown of the PLP biosynthetic pathways occurred independently at least three times in animal lineages, (2) the de novo pathway was formed by the generation of pdxB in γ-proteobacteria, and (3) the order of the gene loss in VB6 metabolism was conserved among different evolutionary lineages. These results suggest that the evolution of VB6 metabolism was subject to gains and frequent losses of related genes in the 122 species examined. This dynamic nature of the evolutionary changes must have been responsible for the breakdowns of the pathways, resulting in profound differentiation of heterotrophy among the species.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)243-250
Number of pages8
JournalMOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume22
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2005
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Complete genome
  • Gene gain
  • Gene loss
  • Metabolic network
  • Vitamin B

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics

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