In Silico Analysis of Gene Expression Network Components Underlying Pigmentation Phenotypes in the Python Identified Evolutionarily Conserved Clusters of Transcription Factor Binding Sites

Figure 4

Orthologous multiple sequence alignment of MITF across species. Strong patterns of conservation are observed from alignment position 130 until alignment position 293. A second long block of conservation is observed at position 347 and continues until the end of the alignment at position 575. The DNA binding region of MITF is contained with the Myc-type, basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) domain at spanning from position 303 to position 370 (this region is highlighted in yellow in the figure). This region of the alignment is extremely well conserved with only a single amino acid differing between the species at alignment position 418 where the mammals (mouse, dog, and horse) have a threonine (T) while all of the nonmammals have an alanine (A). The highlighted green region of the mouse protein indicates the region of the mouse DNA binding region for which a protein structure cocrystal exists.