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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mol. Biosci.
Sec. Molecular Evolution
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2024.1485485
This article is part of the Research Topic Discovering Horizontal Gene Transfer Events Among Protein Families With Molecular Divergent and Convergent Evolution View all 3 articles

Independent evolution of oleate hydratase clades in Bacillales reflects molecular convergence

Provisionally accepted
Robert J Neff Robert J Neff Priscila C Lages Priscila C Lages Shannon K Donworth Shannon K Donworth James D Brien James D Brien Christopher D. Radka Christopher D. Radka *
  • Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Oleate hydratase (OhyA), a flavoenzyme that catalyzes the hydration of unsaturated fatty acids, has been identified in various Bacillales organisms, including those in the Listeria, Lysinibacillus, Paenibacillus, and Staphylococcus genera. In this study, we combine structural biology with molecular and phylogenetic analyses to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of the OhyA protein family within the Bacillales order. Our evolutionary analysis reveals two distinct OhyA clades (clade I and clade II) within Bacillales that, while sharing catalytic function, exhibit significant genomic and structural differences. Our findings suggest that these OhyA clades originated from independent evolutionary processes through convergent evolution rather than gene duplication. We also show that the evolutionary divergence in OhyA is likely due to intrinsic sequence variations rather than being strictly linked to functional domain changes. Furthermore, within the Staphylococcus genus, we observed that the evolution of the ohyA gene aligns with the species tree, supporting a common ancestral origin. This study enhances our understanding of the impact of evolutionary history on the structure and function of OhyA across the Bacillales order.

    Keywords: oleate hydratase (OhyA), molecular evolution, Bacillales (Caryophanales), phylogenetics, Protein family, Staphylococcus aureus (s. Aureus)

    Received: 23 Aug 2024; Accepted: 28 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Neff, Lages, Donworth, Brien and Radka. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Christopher D. Radka, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky, United States

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