Conservation in the phylum of the local homology of apolipoproteins with the thyroid hormone plasma carriers

Thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG), transthyretin (TTR), albumin (HSA), plus other plasmatic proteins, which include apolipoproteins, can bind and transport thyroid hormones (TH). In 1994, a 5-residue motif (Y, L/I/M, X, X, V/L/I) conserved in human TBG, TTR, HSA, and human and animal apolipoproteins was identified. Recently, we noticed that a number of residues upstream and downstream that motif are also conserved. We tested in silico the conservation of this larger motif in the many additional animal sequences of TH plasma carriers discovered after 1994. To this aim, we searched for the occurrence of the “new” motif in human and animal apolipoprotein and non-apolipoprotein TH-binding plasmatic proteins, and in a group of randomly selected proteins (2918 sequences from 56 species) not known as TH binders. Our results confirm the conservation of the “new” motif, associated with TH binding, in a total of 426 sequences analyzed (220 belonging to 169 apolipoproteins from 69 species, 206 belonging to 123 nonapolipoproteins from 54 species). Additionally, we found that within such conserved segments some differences between groups of TH plasma carriers exist. Interestingly, number and type of differences appear related to the affinity of each carrier for thyroid hormones. No occurrence of the motif was found in control proteins (alpha- and beta-tubulin, eosinophil cationic protein, endothelin-1, -2 and -3, IgG receptor, tropomyosin, Wnt inhibitory factor 1, erythropoietin, insulin and haptoglobin). Maintenance of a TH-binding domain in apolipoproteins throughout the phylum should be not less important that maintenance of the lipid binding domain