The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.

wikigene or wiki gene protein drug chemical gene disease author authorship tracking collaborative publishing evolutionary knowledge reputation system wiki2.0 global collaboration genes proteins drugs chemicals diseases compound
Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)
 
 
 

Discovery of Siglec-14, a novel sialic acid receptor undergoing concerted evolution with Siglec-5 in primates.

Immune receptors that show high mutual sequence similarity and have antagonizing signaling properties are called paired receptors, and are believed to fine-tune immune responses. Siglecs are sialic acid-recognizing receptors of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily expressed on immune cells. Human Siglec-5, encoded by SIGLEC5 gene, has four extracellular Ig-like domains and a cytosolic inhibitory motif. We discovered human Siglec-14 with three Ig-like domains, encoded by the SIGLEC14 gene, adjacent to SIGLEC5. Human Siglec-14 has almost complete sequence identity with human Siglec-5 at the first two Ig-like domains, shows a glycan binding preference similar to that of human Siglec-5, and associates with the activating adapter protein DAP12. Thus, Siglec-14 and Siglec-5 appear to be the first glycan binding paired receptors. Near-complete sequence identity of the amino-terminal part of human Siglec-14 and Siglec-5 indicates partial gene conversion between SIGLEC14 and SIGLEC5. Remarkably, SIGLEC14 and SIGLEC5 in other primates also show evidence of gene conversions within each lineage. Evidently, balancing the interactions between Siglec-14, Siglec-5 and their common ligand(s) had selective advantage during the course of evolution. The "essential arginine" critical for sialic acid recognition in both Siglec-14 and Siglec-5 is present in humans but mutated in almost all great ape alleles.[1]

References

  1. Discovery of Siglec-14, a novel sialic acid receptor undergoing concerted evolution with Siglec-5 in primates. Angata, T., Hayakawa, T., Yamanaka, M., Varki, A., Nakamura, M. FASEB J. (2006) [Pubmed]
 
WikiGenes - Universities