Bioinformatics: Ciliates/Yeast Comparison

Yeasts are single-celled eukaryotes that share basic cellular mechanisms with human cells but are easier to study genetically.

A database search of the fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) genome revealed a sequence that showed similarity to the most highly conserved portion of ciliate telomere end-binding proteins. The yeast gene was named pot1 (protection of telomeres 1).

Amino acid sequences from Euplotes crassus, Stylonychia mytilus, Oxytricha trifallax, Oxytricha nova, and Schizosaccharomyces pombe.
Amino acid sequence of part of the telomere end-binding protein. The first four lines are from different species of ciliates, and the last line is from yeast.
  • Yellow: Amino acids that are similar among the ciliates but not yeast.
  • Red: Amino acids that are similar between ciliates and yeast. “Similar” means chemically similar. For example, V, I, and L all have small hydrophobic side chains.
  • – –: Gaps introduced in the sequence to optimize the number of matches.