From owner-drosophila@net.bio.net Wed Apr 07 23:00:00 1993
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From: MCKMICP@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (Michael McKenna)
Newsgroups: bionet.drosophila
Subject: Superfamily Phylogenetics
Message-ID: <16BA913608.MCKMICP@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu>
Date: 8 Apr 93 02:02:48 GMT
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I would like to generate a phylogenetic tree of the lipocalin#
superfamily. These sequences are very distantly related, if at#
all, but share a number of common general characteristics, including#
a signal peptide, several pairs of cysteine residues, and a #
molecular weight between 15 and 20 kD. They also share a common #
function; the transport and delivery of hydrophobic molecules#
through an aqueous environment. Several of these molecules have #
had their structures solved, and there is a compelling uniformity#
to their structure, even though the identity is very low at the#
primary level, often on the order of 20%.#
#
I have discovered a number of potential lipocalins in the antennae of#
Drosophila melanogaster which belong to the family of odorant-binding#
proteins. My question is- Is it possible to generate a phylogeny from#
sequence data when only dubious connections can be made with various #
allignment algorithms? Most of the programs I have seen can do a #
resonable job with clearly related molecules. I suspect it can't#
be done reasonably in this particular case. Any suggestions?#
#
Thanks,             Mike McKenna         MCKMICP@YALEVM.YCC.Yale.edu

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