Taxonomic distribution of proteins containing PYRIN domains

The tree below includes only several representative species and genera. The complete taxonomic breakdown of all proteins containing PYRIN domains can be accessed here. Click the counts or percentage values to display the corresponding proteins.

Apoptotic molecular machinery: vastly increased complexity in vertebratesrevealed by genome comparisons.

Aravind L, Dixit VM, Koonin EV
Science. 2001; 291: 1279-84

A comparison of the proteins encoded in the recently (nearly) completed humangenome to those from the fly and nematode genomes reveals a major increase in thecomplexity of the apoptotic molecular machinery in vertebrates, in terms of both the number of proteins involved and their domain architecture. Several componentsof the apoptotic system are shared by humans and flies, to the exclusion ofnematodes, which seems to support the existence of a coelomate clade in animalevolution. A considerable repertoire of apoptotic protein domains was detected inActinomycetes and Cyanobacteria, which suggests a major contribution ofhorizontal gene transfer to the early evolution of apoptosis.

The pyrin domain: a possible member of the death domain-fold family implicated inapoptosis and inflammation.

Martinon F, Hofmann K, Tschopp J
Curr Biol. 2001; 11: 11820-11820

PAAD - a new protein domain associated with apoptosis, cancer and autoimmunediseases.

Pawlowski K, Pio F, Chu Z, Reed JC, Godzik A
Trends Biochem Sci. 2001; 26: 85-7

A new protein domain was found in several proteins involved in apoptosis,inflammation, cancer and immune responses. Its location within these proteins andpredicted fold suggests that it functions as a protein-protein interactiondomain, possibly uniting different signaling pathways.

The DAPIN family: a novel domain links apoptotic and interferon responseproteins.

Staub E, Dahl E, Rosenthal A
Trends Biochem Sci. 2001; 26: 83-5

We report the discovery of a protein domain, hereafter referred to as DAPIN, indiverse vertebrate and viral proteins that is associated with tumor biology,apoptosis and inflammation. Based on a secondary structure prediction, we suggestan all-alpha fold for DAPIN, which is also adopted by apoptotic protein domainsof the CARD, death domain and death effector domain type.