Evolutionary Conservation
Vaults have been identified in mammals, amphibians, avians and Dictyostelium discoideum. The Vault model used by the Pfam database identifies homologues in Paramecium tetraurelia, Kinetoplastida, many vertebrates, a cnidarian (starlet sea anemone), molluscs, Trichoplax adhaerens, flatworms, Echinococcus granulosus and Choanoflagellate.
Although vaults have been observed in many eukaryotic species, a few species do not appear to have the protein. These include:
- Arabidopsis thaliana—a small flowering plant related to cabbage and mustard.
- Caenorhabditis elegans—a free-living nematode that lives in soil.
- Drosophila melanogaster—a two-winged insect also known as a fruit fly.
- Saccharomyces cerevisiae—a species of yeast.
These four species are model organisms for plants, nematodes, animal genetics and fungi respectively. Despite these exceptions, the high degree of similarity of vaults in organisms that do have them implies some sort of evolutionary importance.
Read more about this topic: Vault (organelle)
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