The fungal clock, especially that in Neurospora crassa, is composed of several proteins, notably FRQ, WC-1, and WC-2, which interact at the protein level and at the level of transcription. It is shown here that regions of the FRQ that are highly conserved in many fungal species show significant similarity to regions of proteins found in the amoebae Capsaspora and Acanthamoebae. These 2 amoebae were specifically explored because they have been suggested, based on extensive evidence, to be related to precursors of the modern fungi. Those proteins in Capsaspora/Acanthamoebae with some similarity to FRQ are LARP (an RNA-binding protein), ARNT (which has a PAS motif), and heat shock factor (HSF). These regions of LARP and HSF that show similarity to FRQ are highly conserved between plants, animals, and amoeba. This suggests that these regions were present at the time of the divergence of plants, fungi, insects, and animals, and therefore, they could be plausible precursors to regions of the fungal FRQ. These particular regions of FRQ that show similarity to LARP and HSF are also of functional significance since mutations in these regions of the Neurospora FRQ led to changes in the rhythm. The FRQ proteins from 13 different species of fungi were analyzed via motif analysis (MEME), and 11 different motifs were found. This provides some understanding as to the minimum requirements for an FRQ protein. Many of these FRQ motifs can be matched up with known domains in FRQ. In addition, these 13 different species of fungi were screened for the presence/absence of 7 additional genes/proteins that play some role in fungal clocks.

中文翻译：

---

真菌中的昼夜节律：某些时钟组件的结构/功能/演变。

真菌钟，尤其是在神经孢霉中，由几种蛋白质组成，尤其是FRQ，WC-1和WC-2，它们在蛋白质水平和转录水平上相互作用。在此显示，在许多真菌物种中高度保守的FRQ区域与在变形虫Capsaspora和Acanthamoebae中发现的蛋白质区域显示出显着相似性。之所以专门研究这2个变形虫，是因为根据广泛的证据表明它们与现代真菌的前体有关。Capsaspora / Acanthamoebae中与FRQ相似的那些蛋白质是LARP（一种RNA结合蛋白），ARNT（具有PAS图案）和热休克因子（HSF）。LARP和HSF与FRQ相似的这些区域在植物，动物和变形虫之间高度保守。这表明这些区域存在于植物，真菌，昆虫和动物发散时，因此它们可能是真菌FRQ区域的合理前体。FRQ的这些与LARP和HSF相似的特定区域也具有功能重要性，因为Neurospora FRQ的这些区域中的突变导致了节奏的改变。通过基序分析（MEME）分析了13种不同真菌的FRQ蛋白，发现了11种不同的基序。这提供了对FRQ蛋白质最低要求的一些理解。许多这些FRQ主题可以与FRQ中的已知域匹配。另外，针对这13种不同种类的真菌进行了筛选，寻找是否存在7种在真菌钟中起作用的其他基因/蛋白质。