Duplications and subdomain shuffling in diatom metacaspases

Abstract

A novel kind of type III metacaspases was described based on published diatom genomes and transcriptomes. These sequences feature multiple copies of the metacaspase domain and, according to the phylogenetic analysis, have been independently created by intragenic duplications in multiple species. Although the phylogeny of diatom metacaspases and its relationships with functional diversity of these enzymes are currently poorly resolved, multiplicated metacaspases are present in most, if not all, major clades of this subfamily.