EVOLUTION AND ORIGIN OF NEUROFIBROMIN, THE PRODUCT OF THE NEUROFIBROMATOSIS TYPE 1 (NF1) TUMOR-SUPRESSOR GENE

SUMMARY Motivation: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a common genetic disorder, which predisposes affected individuals to a variety of clinical features including tumors of the central and peripheral nervous systems. The product of the NF1 gene, neurofibromin, is a tumor suppressor which most likely acts through the interaction of its GTPase activating protein (GAP) related domain (GRD) with RAS to regulate cellular growth. While clinical features of NF1 as well as functional activity of human neurofibromin are intensively studied now little is understood about its evolution, diversity, and overall distribution among different taxa. Results: By combining bioinformatic and phylogenetic approaches, we demonstrated that NF1 homologs are present across a wide range of eukaryotic lineages. We observed 26 similar to NF1 amino-acid sequences from Chordata, Echinodermata, Arthropoda, Platyhelmintes and Fungi taxons. Taking into account a presence of NF1 gene in fungi, we can suggest the derivation of this gene before the Metazoan origin. In this case, an absence of NF1 in Nematoda and Mollusca should be a result of this gene elimination.