Reply to Braasch and Postlethwait: Evolutionary origin of the teleost A2 agouti genes (agouti signaling protein 2 and agouti-related protein 2) remains unclear

Reply to Braasch and Postlethwait: Evolutionary origin of the teleost A2 agouti genes (agouti signaling protein 2 and agouti-related protein 2) remains unclear.

The teleost agouti-related protein 2 gene is an ohnolog gone missing from the tetrapod genome.

A central question in evolutionary genomics is how morphological differences between taxa arise from differences in gene repertoire. Answers require rigorous orthology assignments. Recent work (1) illuminated the mechanism of background adaptation in teleost fishes by investigating the function of agoutirelated protein 2 (agrp2), a gene so far found only in teleosts. Agouti family proteins anta...

Structural and molecular evolutionary analysis of Agouti and Agouti-related proteins.

Agouti (ASIP) and Agouti-related protein (AgRP) are endogenous antagonists of melanocortin receptors that play critical roles in the regulation of pigmentation and energy balance, respectively, and which arose from a common ancestral gene early in vertebrate evolution. The N-terminal domain of ASIP facilitates antagonism by binding to an accessory receptor, but here we show that the N-terminal ...

Characterization of Agouti-related protein binding to melanocortin receptors.

Agouti-related protein (AGRP) is a naturally occurring antagonist of melanocortin action that is thought to play an important role in the hypothalamic control of feeding behavior. The exact mechanism of AGRP and Agouti protein action has been difficult to examine, in part because of difficulties in producing homogeneous forms of these molecules that can be used for direct binding assays. In thi...

Contribution of melanocortin receptor exoloops to Agouti-related protein binding.

Agouti-related protein (AGRP) is an endogenous antagonist of melanocortin action that functions in the hypothalamic control of feeding behavior. Although previous studies have shown that AGRP binds three of the five known subtypes of melanocortin receptor, the receptor domains participating in binding and the molecular interactions involved are presently unknown. The present studies were design...