Phytanoyl-CoA discussion

Evolution Discussion

Whilst the phylogenetic tree seems to groups similar organisms together well there were some unexpected placements. Fungi were related further from plants than what might be expected. This supports the theory that fungi are more closely related to animals than plants as theory suggest however it also shows that the phytanoyl-CoA must be required far more by these types of organisms than in plants. Due to the function of this protein being to catalyze alpha oxidation of fatty acids, it can be inferred that organisms feeding on tissues containing such fatty acid would require phytanoyl-CoA hydroxylase more than other organisms such as plants. An example of such a fatty acid is clorophyll, meaning that all organisms trying to digest plant matter would require a functional gene to deal with its breakdown. This is then why high conservation has been maintained in the animal and fungi domains but not a greatly in plant and bacterial organisms.

The two protozoan have been grouped differently in the original and boot-strapped trees an both have boot-strap values below 50% indicating that the grouping is not a highly supported one. In particular the grouping of the Monosiga brevicollis has a boot-strap value of 29% which is too low to place any confidence in its position. The grouping of Tetrahymena has a higher value which indicates that there may be the possibility that lateral gene transfer has occurred. Tetrahymena is a phagotrophic protozoan which inhabits mainly fresh water and can exist in both commensalistic and pathogenic modes. Lateral gene transfer is rare among eukaryotes however the its frequency among phagotrophic protozoans is comparable to that of prokaryotes. Thus due to the environmental niche that Tetrahymena exists in, it is quite possible that leteral gene transfer occurred between it and another water dwelling animal.

Abstract | Introduction | Results | Discussion | Conclusion | Method | References