Lysozymes are bacteriolytic enzymes which are present in almost all organisms and viruses where they hydrolyse peptidoglycans. They serve as a key component of the innate immune system for the defence against bacteria. Lysozymes are a part of a large protein superfamily of glycoside hydrolases. I have focused my analysis on five main lysozyme families which are present in eukaryotes: GH22i (i-type lysozyme), GH22c (c-type lysozyme), GH23 (g-type lysozyme), GH24 (phage lysozyme) and GH25 (1,4-beta-N-acetylmuraminidase). The objective of my Master's thesis was to acquire new informations regarding the distribution of lysozyme families in eukaryotes and to explain the evolution of individual lysozyme families. The oldest animal lineages are poorly represented in proteome databases therefore a large part of the newly acquired data focused on sponges (Porifera), Cnidarians, Ctenophores and Placozoans. I have used diverse methods of phylogenomics, phylogenetics, bioinformatics and structural modelling for the analysis of the new lysozyme data. The new information enabled the identification of evolutionary mechanisms (Horizontal gene transfer and functional diversification) along with the timing of the origin of GH22c, GH22i and GH23 families in eukaryotes which emerged in the ancestor of all animals. The phylogenetic analysis has demonstrated the distribution and evolution of individual lysozyme families and involved the representatives of the oldest animal lineages, which were not analysed before. For structural modelling with the program I-TASSER I have used the most divergent sequences of lysozyme families from sponges or cnidarians, based on the lowest similarity with previously known lysozyme sequences. The newly acquired data provided information about the conserved lysozyme domain in all five families and the conserved β-hairpin motif in GH22c, GH22i and GH23 families. The newly acquired data has shown multiple cases of horizontal gene transfer of lysozyme genes from bacteria to eukaryotes in GH24 and GH25 families and c-type lysozyme gene loss in nematodes, molluscs, annelids, hemichordates, urochordates and lampreys.
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