Novel syntaxin gene sequences from Giardia, Trypanosoma and algae: implications for the ancient evolution of the eukaryotic endomembrane system.

SNAP receptors or SNARES are crucial components of the intracellular membrane system of eukaryotes. The syntaxin family of SNAREs have been shown to have roles in neurotransmission, vesicular transport, membrane fusion and even internal membrane compartment reconstruction. While syntaxins and SNAREs in general have been well characterized in mammalian and yeast models, little is known about their overall distribution across eukaryotic diversity or about the evolution of the syntaxin gene family. By combining bioinformatic, molecular biological and phylogenetic approaches, we demonstrate that various syntaxin homologs are not only present in 'eukaryotic crown taxa' but across a wide range of eukaryotic lineages. The alignment of evolutionarily diverse syntaxin paralogs shows that an isoleucine residue critical to nSec1-syntaxin complex formation and the characteristic syntaxin glutamine residue are nearly universally conserved, implying a general functional importance for these residues. Other identified functional residues involved in botulism toxicity and calcium-binding-protein interactions are also compared. The presence of Golgi-related syntaxins in the intestinal parasite Giardia intestinalis provides further evidence for a cryptic Golgi in this 'adictyosomal' taxon, and another likely case of secondary reduction in this parasite. The phylogeny of syntaxins shows a number of nested duplications, including a case of parallel evolution in the plasma membrane-associated syntaxins, and ancestral duplications in the other syntaxin paralogs. These speak to ancient events in the evolution of the syntaxin system and emphasize the universal role of the syntaxins in the eukaryotic intracellular compartment system.