• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.595-601
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• 2013

The clusters of orthologous groups of proteins (COG) algorithm was applied to identify essential proteins in eukaryotes and to measure the degree of conservation. Sixty-three orthologous groups, which were conserved in 66 microbial genomes, enlarged to 104 eukaryotic orthologous groups (KOGs) and 71 KOGs were conserved at the nuclear genome of 7 eucaryotes. Fifty-four of 71 translation-related genes were conserved, highlighting the importance of proteins in modern organisms. Translation initiation factors (KOG0343, KOG3271) and prolyl-tRNA synthetase (KOG4163) showed high conservation based on the distance value analysis. The genes of Caenorhabditis elegans appear to harbor high genetic variation because the genome showed the highest variation at 71 conserved proteins among 7 genomes. The 71 conserved genes will be valuable in basic and applied research, for example, targeting for antibiotic development.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.791-797
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• 2014

Sixty-two conserved orthologous groups (OGs) of proteins, in 63 prokaryotes and seven eukaryotes were analyzed to identify essential proteins in the mitochondria of eukaryotes, and their counterparts in prokaryotes. Twenty OGs were common in eukaryotic mitochondria, and all were translation related. Encephalitozoon cuniculi, an obligate parasitic eukaryote, shares no common mitochondrial OGs with the other 69 organisms. Seventeen conserved OGs were mitochondria related in the 69 organisms. Mitochondria related- and nonrelated-OGs were divided into prokaryotic genomes (p<0.001, paired t-test) unlike eukaryotic genomes in the distance value analysis. The most commonly conserved mitochondria-related OG was COG0048-KOG1750 (ribosomal small subunit S12), whereas it was COG0100-KOG0407 (ribosomal small subunit S11) in nonrelated OGs. These results could be applied in scientific research to determine phylogenetic relationships and in areas such as drug development.