Question

Which of the given statements is incorrect about Ancient Conserved Regions?

(a) The method involves database similarity searches of the SwissProt database with human, worm, yeast, or E. coli genes and identification of matches with sequences from a different phylum than the query sequence

(b) An analysis of ACRs that predate the radiation of the major animal phyla some 580–540 million years ago suggested that 50–60% of coding sequences are ACRs

(c) These ACRs may represent proteins present at the time of the prokaryotic–eukaryotic divergence

(d) Phylogenetically diverse groups of organisms have been analyzed for the presence of conserved proteins and protein domains that have been conserved over long periods of evolutionary time, called ancient conserved regions or ACRs

The question was asked during an internship interview.

This interesting question is from Comparative Genomics topic in division Collecting & Storing Sequences in Laboratory of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

The correct answer is (b) An analysis of ACRs that predate the radiation of the major animal phyla some 580–540 million years ago suggested that 50–60% of coding sequences are ACRs

The explanation is: The analysis of ACRs 580–540 million years ago suggested that 20–40% of coding sequences are ACRs. For example, a search with 1916 E. coli proteins detected 266 ACRs found in 439 sequences, roughly one-quarter of the SwissProt database.