UC San Diego

Visual Rhodopsins (VR) are recognized members of the large and diverse family of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), but their evolutionary origin and relationships to other proteins, are not known. In an earlier publication (Shlykov et al., 2012), we characterized the 4-Toulene Sulfonate Uptake Permease (TSUP) family of transmembrane proteins, showing that these 7 or 8 TMS proteins arose by intragenic duplication of a 4 TMS-encoding gene, sometimes followed by loss of a terminal TMS. In this study, we show that the TSUP, GPCR and Microbial Rhodopsin (MR) families are related to each other and to six other currently recognized transport protein families. We designate this superfamily the Transporter-Opsin-G protein-coupled receptor (TOG) Superfamily. Despite their 8 TMS origins, members of most constituent families exhibit 7 TMS topologies that are well conserved, and these arose by loss of either the N-terminal (more frequent) or the C- terminal (less frequent) TMS, depending on the family. Phylogenetic analyses revealed familial relationships within the superfamily and protein relationships within each of the nine families. Proteins functioning by dissimilar mechanisms (channels, primary active transporters, secondary active transporters, group translocators and receptors) are interspersed on a phylogenetic tree of the TOG superfamily, suggesting that changes in the transport and energy-coupling mechanisms occurred multiple times during the evolution of this superfamily