Characterisation of Drosophila thrombospondin defines an early origin of pentameric thrombospondins
Författare
Summary, in English
Thrombospondins (TSPs) are multidomain oligomers that have complex roles in cell interactions and tissue organisation. The five vertebrate TSPs comprise two subgroups, A and B, that are assembled as trimers or pentamers, respectively. An invertebrate TSP was recently discovered in Drosophila melanogaster, but there is no knowledge of the oligomerisation status or properties of this molecule. We developed by bioinformatics a new dataset containing the single TSP of Drosophila melanogaster and four other newly identified invertebrate TSPs to examine the phylogenetic relationships of TSPs. These analyses clearly indicate pentamerisation as an early attribute of TSPs. We demonstrate experimentally that D. melanogaster TSP is assembled as a pentamer, has heparin-binding activity and is a component of extracellular matrix (ECM). During embryogenesis, the TSP transcript is concentrated at muscle attachment sites and is expressed by a subset of myoblasts and in imaginal discs. These novel results establish TSPs as highly conserved ECM components in both invertebrates and vertebrates and open fresh perspectives on the conservation of structure and biological function within this family
Avdelning/ar
- Invertebrate Developmental Biology, Stefan Baumgartner's group
Publiceringsår
2003
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
479-494
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Journal of Molecular Biology
Volym
328
Issue
2
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Elsevier
Ämne
- Developmental Biology
Nyckelord
- molecular phylogeny
- RGD-motif
- heparin-binding
- extracellular matrix
- cell interactions
Status
Published
Forskningsgrupp
- Invertebrate Developmental Biology, Stefan Baumgartner's group
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 1089-8638