Cross-Genome Clustering of Human and C. elegans G-Protein Coupled Receptors

Abstract

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are one of the largest groups of membrane proteins and are popular drug targets. The work reported here attempts to perform cross-genome phylogeny on GPCRs from two widely different taxa, human versus C. elegans genomes and to address the issues on evolutionary plasticity, to identify functionally related genes, orthologous relationship, and ligand binding properties through effective bioinformatic approaches. Through RPS blast around 1106 nematode GPCRs were given chance to associate with previously established 8 types of human GPCR profiles at varying E-value thresholds and resulted 32 clusters were illustrating co-clustering and class-specific retainsionship. In the significant thresholds, 81% of the C. elegans GPCRs were associated with 32 clusters and 27 C. elegans GPCRs (2%) inferred for orthology. 177 hypothetical proteins were observed in cluster association and could be reliably associated with one of 32 clusters. Several nematode-specific GPCR clades were observed suggesting lineage-specific functional recruitment in response to environment.