The membrane attack complex/perforin (MACPF) superfamily consists of a diverse group of proteins involved in bacterial pathogenesis and sporulation as well as eukaryotic immunity, embryonic development, neural migration and fruiting body formation. The present work shows that the evolutionary relationships between the members of the superfamily, previously suggested by comparison of their tertiary structures, can also be supported by analyses of their primary structures. The superfamily includes the MACPF family (TC 1.C.39), the cholesterol-dependent cytolysin (CDC) family (TC 1.C.12.1 and 1.C.12.2) and the pleurotolysin pore-forming (pleurotolysin B) family (TC 1.C.97.1), as revealed by expansion of each family by comparison against a large protein database, and by the comparisons of their hidden Markov models. Clustering analyses demonstrated grouping of the CDC homologues separately from the 12 MACPF subfamilies, which also grouped separately from the pleurotolysin B family. Members of the MACPF superfamily revealed a remarkably diverse range of proteins spanning eukaryotic, bacterial, and archaeal taxonomic domains, with notable variations in protein domain architectures. Our strategy should also be helpful in putting together other highly divergent protein families.

中文翻译：

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膜攻击复合体/穿孔素超家族。

膜攻击复合物/穿孔素（MACPF）超家族由参与细菌发病机理和孢子形成以及真核免疫，胚胎发育，神经迁移和子实体形成的各种蛋白质组成。目前的工作表明，以前通过比较三级成员的结构提出的超家族成员之间的进化关系，也可以通过对其一级结构的分析来支持。超家族包括MACPF家族（TC 1.C.39），胆固醇依赖性细胞溶素（CDC）家族（TC 1.C.12.1和1.C.12.2）和胸膜溶素孔形成（pleurotolysin B）家族（ TC 1.C.97.1），如通过与大型蛋白质数据库进行比较来扩展每个家族，以及对其隐藏的马尔可夫模型进行比较所揭示。聚类分析表明，CDC同源物与12个MACPF子家族分开分组，后者也与胸膜溶血素B家族分开分组。MACPF超家族的成员揭示了跨越真核生物，细菌和古细菌生物分类结构域的蛋白质范围极为不同，蛋白质结构域结构也发生了显着变化。我们的策略也应有助于将其他高度不同的蛋白质家族整合在一起。