Ancestry & molecular evolutionary analyses of heat shock protein 47 kDa (HSP47/SERPINH1)

HSP47/SERPINH1 is key-regulator for collagen biosynthesis and its structural assembly. To date, there is no comprehensive study on the phylogenetic history of HSP47. Herein we illustrate the evolutionary history of HSP47/SERPINH1 along with sequence, structural and syntenic traits for HSP47/SERPINH1. We have identified ancestral HSP47/SERPINH1 locus in Japanese lamprey (Lethenteron japonicum). This gene remains on the same or similar locus for ~500 million years (MY), but chromosomal duplication was observed in ray-finned fishes, leading into three sets of three sets (I-III) of HSP47/SERPINH1. Two novel introns were inserted at the positions 36b and 102b in the first exon of only HSP47-1 gene from the selected ray-finned fishes. On the evolutionary time scale, the events of HSP47 duplications took placed between 416-360 MY ago (MYA) while intron insertion dates back to 231-190 MYA after early divergence of ray-finned fishes.