It has become clear that the extant vertebrates are divided into three major groups, that is, hagfishes, lampreys, and jawed vertebrates. Morphological and molecular studies, however, have resulted in conflicting views with regard to their interrelationships. To clarify the phylogenetic relationships between them, 48 orthologous protein-coding gene families were analyzed. Even as the analysis of 34 nuclear gene families supported the monophyly of cyclostomes, the analysis of 14 mitochondrial gene families suggested a closer relationship between lampreys and gnathostomes compared to hagfishes. Lampreys were sister group of gnathostomes. The results of this study supported the cyclostomes. Choice of outgroup, tree-making methods, and software may affect the phylogenetic prediction, which may have caused much debate over the subject. Development of new methods for tackling such problems is still necessary.
Shuiyan YuWeiwei ZhangLing LiHuifang HuangFei MaQingwei Li
Lamprey is a representative of the agnathans, the most ancient class of vertebrates. Parasitic lampreys secrete anticoagulant from their buccal glands and prevent blood coagulation of host fishes. We identified a buccal gland secretory protein-2 （BGSP-2） from a buccal gland cDNA library of Larnpetrajaponica. The full-length BGSP-2 gene was cloned and the recombinant BGSP-2 protein was generated. The role of BGSP-2 on lymphocyte proliferation was studied by examining its effects on human T lymphocytes. We found that lamprey BGSP-2 was able to effectively block the proliferation of T cells in vitro by inducing G1/S cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, it inhibited the proliferation of hmnan T lymphocytes stimulated by phytohemagglutinin （PHA） at a minimum concentration of 0.1μg/ml. Our data suggest that lamprey BGSP-2 is able to block the mitosis of human T lymphocytes at the G1/S point, and has the potential of anti-proliferative effect on PHA-activated T lymphocytes.
Jing SUN Shuiyan YU Zhuang XUE Cenjie LIU Yu WU Xin LIU Qingwei LI
