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Abstract
Aim
Selenoproteins are a group of proteins which contain a rare aminoacid, selenocystein (Sec), encoded by the codon UGA, which can also be translated as a stop codon. Due to this dual role of the UGA codon there are a lot of missanotated selenopotein genes. Therefore, the aim of this research work is to annotate all selenocysteines present Latimeria chalumnae genome, an ancient fish that not long ago was believed to be extinguished, interestingly this fish is a close ancestor of tetrapods.
Methods
Bioinformatic tools such as tBLASTn, Exonerate, T_coffee and SECISearch have been used to look for selenopoteins in the genome of Latimeria chalumnae. All proteins have been analysed using each bioinformatic tool sepatately and by an informatic automation, later all data obtained was compared and analized.
Results and Discussion
25 possible Selenoproteins were found in the Latimeria chalumnae genome belonging to 15 different families. 24 had Selenocyteins and 1 (GPx4a) was a Cystein homologue. The Selenoprotein machinery was also found, as well as several significant hits using SECIS search.
