Molecular Evolution of Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Signaling Pathway Genes

The Aryl hydrocarbon receptor is an ancient transcriptional factor originally discovered as a sensor of dioxin. In addition to its function as a receptor of environmental toxicants, it plays an important role in development. Although a significant amount of research has been carried out to understand the AHR signal transduction pathway and its involvement in species’ susceptibility to environmental toxicants, none of them to date has comprehensively studied its evolutionary origins. Studying the evolutionary origins of molecules can inform ancestral relationships of genes. The vertebrate genome has been shaped by two rounds of whole-genome duplications (WGD) at the base of vertebrate evolution approximately 600 million years ago, followed by lineage-specific gene losses, which often complicate the assignment of orthology. It is crucial to understand the evolutionary origins of this transcription factor and its partners, to distinguish orthologs from ancient non-orthologous homologs. In this study, we have investigated the evolutionary origins of proteins involved in the AHR pathway. Our results provide evidence of gene loss and duplications, crucial for understanding the functional connectivity of humans and model species. Multiple studies have shown that 2R-ohnologs (genes and proteins that have survived from the 2R-WGD) are enriched in signaling components relevant to developmental disorders and cancer. Our findings provide a link between the AHR pathway’s evolutionary trajectory and its potential mechanistic involvement in pathogenesis.