Structural and Evolutionary Adaptation of NOD-Like Receptors in Birds

Biomed Res Int. 2021 Apr 29;2021:5546170. doi: 10.1155/2021/5546170. eCollection 2021.ABSTRACTNOD-like receptors (NLRs) are intracellular sensors of the innate immune system that recognize intracellular pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). Little information exists regarding the incidence of positive selection in the evolution of NLRs of birds or the structural differences between bird and mammal NLRs. Evidence of positive selection was identified in four avian NLRs (NOD1, NLRC3, NLRC5, and NLRP3) using the maximum likelihood approach. These NLRs are under different selection pressures which is indicative of different evolution patterns. Analysis of these NLRs showed a lower percentage of codons under positive selection in the LRR domain than seen in the studies of Toll-like receptors (TLRs), suggesting that the LRR domain evolves differently between NLRs and TLRs. Modeling of human, chicken, mammalian, and avian ancestral NLRs revealed the existence of variable evolution patterns in protein structure that may be adaptively driven.PMID:33997004 | PMC:PMC8105094 | DOI:10.1155/2021/5546170

Source: Biomed Res - May 17, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Xueting Ma Baohong Liu Zhenxing Gong Xinmao Yu Jianping Cai Source Type: research