Multiple Sequence Alignement (MSA) - Solution
  1. Go to ClustalW, T-Coffee or MAFFT in MyHits, paste the sequences and do the multiple alignment
  2. Have a closer look at position 97 (green arrow), you can see a "U" residue, but not in A.gambiae.
  1. at least 46
  2. There is a stop codon in the corresponding DNA sequence (mRNA) of Q58DU4_BOVIN (BT021503)
  3. When translating the mRNA in all reading frames, you can see that the rest of the protein (light blue) is there, the first stop being the "U" special amino acid: selenocystein
    >bovin_1
    KAAVMAARRDGWLGPAFGLRLLLATVLQTVSALGAEFSSESCRELGFSSNLLCSSCDLLG
    QFNLLQLDPDCRGCCQEEAQFETKKLYAGAILEVCG    *KLGRFPQVQAFVRSDKPKLFKGL
    QIKYVRGSDPVLKLLDDSGNIAEELSILKWNTDSVEEFLSEKLERI    *    ILNFVLSFCYLVQ
    *NTIAPRK*FSFAFFH*SVFYCEALNI*LKVQAAAQPMIGKKLTKPFFISFHPSFVDTTS
    NRMPSNRLVVNYANDSL**LVSFMNNRFLN*GG**GR*LLCLVCCVLFESNNNKLESK*D
    IPSLKRLPVPQILSYFCTPSLPFNRNV*FIMNALHKDFMAALL*NRFKIYSKSEIFTQRF
    ALMKTTQKTFLRICVDLILSKFLCFTFLWKSQFKNDHL*DQNINKKFQKS
  4. Yes there are also longer versions of Q5ZM93_CHICK (AJ719491) and Q5XG54_XENLA (BC084609)
    and also in ENSEMBL for zebra fish (annotation)
    >Q58DU4_BOVIN
    MAARRDGWLGPAFGLRLLLATVLQTVSALGAEFSSESCRELGFSSNLLCSSCDLLG
    QFNLLQLDPDCRGCCQEEAQFETKKLYAGAILEVCG    XKLGRFPQVQAFVRSDKPKLFKGL
    QIKYVRGSDPVLKLLDDSGNIAEELSILKWNTDSVEEFLSEKLERI
    >Q5ZM93_CHICK
    MAAAAELAALVRCWLCLLLGLPAINVYGAQLSSEACRELGFSSNLLCSSCNLLGQFSL
    NQLDPFCRQCCQEEAQLETRKLYAGAVLEVCG    XKLGRFPQVQAFVRSDKPKLFRGLQIKY
    VRGSDPVLKLLDDSGNIAEELSILKWNTDSVEEFLSEKLERL
    >Q5XG54_XENLA
    MAAERMLLWLVAVLQALASYGAELSSEACRDLGFSSNLLCSSCDLLGQFGLNEINSFCRQ
    CCQEEVHLESKKRYPGAVLEICG    XKLGRFPQVQAFVRSEKPKLFKGLQIKYVRGSDPVLK
    LLDENGNISEELSILKWNTDSVEEFLSEKLDRV
    >ENSDARP056978_BRARE
    MAGEVYLLWLLPLLQGLASYGAELSSEACRELGFSSNLLCSSCELLGQFSL
    NQLDLPCRQCCQEEAQLENRKLYPGAILEVCG    XKLGRFPQVQAFVRSDKPKLFRGLQIKY
    VRGSDPVLKLLDDNGNIAEELSILKWNTDSVEEFLSEKLER
  5. When you align these sequences with the sequences in Swissprot you obtain this alignment and this tree
  6. This shows that SelenoCystein for this family of protein are found only in vertebrates.