In-Silico Analysis of Functional and Phylogenetic Distribution of Serine Racemase Homologues in Various Life Domain of Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes

Abstract

The role and characterization of serine racemase (SR) in eukaryotes and prokaryotes are well studied. Although, the phylogenetic distribution of serine racemase remains unexplored in prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes. In this study, by using different computational software we explored the evolutionary history of serine racemases belonging to different life domains. For our analyses, we followed the rational selection criteria to generate a hierarchical dataset of SR-containing organisms. After screening, 193 species were selected and retrieved from an online database NCBI for further analysis. We found that human serine racemase homologs are distributed widely in all these different domains of organisms. Similarity and conservational results have proven that bacterial, fungal and protist SRs are more diverse as compared to mammalian and plant SRs, and those sharing <47% sequence identity are dehydratases rather than racemases. Data concerning the phylogenetic study has proven that serine racemase first evolves in bacteria with a 0.50 distance scale. This in-silico study gives a brief overview of the phylogenetic distribution of SRs.