Qualitative and quantitative variability in different classes of proteins: comparison of mouse and rat.

Proteins of membranes and cytosols were extracted from the livers and brains of mice (inbred strain DBA/6J) and rats (inbred strain DA/Han) and separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE). The 2-DE patterns were compared with regard to qualitative (spot position) and quantitative (spot intensity) characteristics of the proteins of these two species. The following results were obtained: Brain had more (higher percentage) conservative proteins (proteins found in both mice and rats) than liver; plasma membranes had more conservative proteins than the cytosols; organ-unspecific proteins contained more conservative proteins than relatively organ-specific proteins; the pattern of distribution of genetic variability among different classes of proteins represented by findings 1-3 was the same for the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the proteins; and some observations indicated that quantitative variability occurred more frequently among proteins than did qualitative variability. Our conclusion is that regulatory sequences in the DNA (regulatory genes) are subjected to functional constraints that differ in strength among different classes of proteins by the same ratios as the constraints acting on the structural genes. The overall effect of the selective pressure is, however, less stringent for regulatory genes than for structural genes. The results obtained here by comparing two different species are very similar to previous results we obtained by studying different subspecies (inbred strains of the mouse). From this finding arises a new concept: the study of molecular evolution on the basis of different classes of proteins. Our results were compared with data from the literature that were obtained in part from studies on cultured cells. The comparison suggested that cultured cells have lost their tissue-specific proteins, and so generate predominantly extremely conservative proteins.