This website was created as a project for Genetics 677, an undergraduate course at UW Madison.
Protein Homology
Homologene identified the 7 homologue proteins used for the alignment. Links to their respective FASTA amino acid sequences can be found below.
Pan troglodytes (chimpanzee) : 1,432 amino acids
Canis familiaris (dog) : 1,680 amino acids
Mus musculus (mouse) : 1,401 amino acids
Gallus gallus (chicken) : 1,466 amino acids
Danio rerio (zebrafish) : 1,453 amino acids
Caenorhabditis elegans (nematode) : 1,056 amino acids
Oryza sativa (hypothetical protein) : 886 amino acids
Canis familiaris (dog) : 1,680 amino acids
Mus musculus (mouse) : 1,401 amino acids
Gallus gallus (chicken) : 1,466 amino acids
Danio rerio (zebrafish) : 1,453 amino acids
Caenorhabditis elegans (nematode) : 1,056 amino acids
Oryza sativa (hypothetical protein) : 886 amino acids
In order to align protein sequences, BLASTp (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) was used to compare homologues to human WRN. BLASTp denotes a program that searches protein databases using a protein query. The program selection was optimized using protein-protein BLAST. In the table below, Pan troglodytes, Canis familiaris, and Mus musculus all showed a 100% protein homology with the human WRN protein. The homologue with the lowest protein homology is Caenorhabditis elegans. Although somewhat similar, these results differ from the mRNA BLAST alignment, in that all of the protein homologues show a higher homology to the human WRN protein. This is logical because proteins are often conserved among species, while differences in codons and mRNA structure could have contributed to the lower homology seen across the mRNA alignments. It should also be noted that in the protein alignment, Caenorhabditis elegans showed the lowest homology, while in the mRNA alignment, Oryza sativa showed the lowest homology. Although it is not completely clear, this difference could be due to the variations among the respective algorithms used to align the sequences.
References
1. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Gene conserved in eukaryota. HomoloGene. Bethesda (MD): HUGO gene nomenclature committee; March 2010. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=homologene&DbFrom=gene&Cmd=Link&LinkName=gene_
homologene&LinkReadableName=HomoloGene&IdsFromResult=7486&ordinal
pos=NaN&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Gene.Gene_ResultsPanel.Gene_
RVFullReport.GeneRightColMenuLinksP%27
2. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool [Internet]. Besthesda (MD): National Institute of Health; c2009 [cited 2010 Mar 15]. Available from: http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?PROGRAM=blastp&BLAST_PROGRAMS=blastp&PAGE_TYPE=BlastSearch&SHOW_
DEFAULTS=on&LINK_LOC=blasthome
homologene&LinkReadableName=HomoloGene&IdsFromResult=7486&ordinal
pos=NaN&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Gene.Gene_ResultsPanel.Gene_
RVFullReport.GeneRightColMenuLinksP%27
2. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool [Internet]. Besthesda (MD): National Institute of Health; c2009 [cited 2010 Mar 15]. Available from: http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?PROGRAM=blastp&BLAST_PROGRAMS=blastp&PAGE_TYPE=BlastSearch&SHOW_
DEFAULTS=on&LINK_LOC=blasthome
