Origin, Evolution and Functional Diversity of bHLH Gene Family: Insights from Comparative Genomics and Interactomics

The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins make up of a complex multigene family of transcription factors that play the important roles in many biological processes. Although much effort has been made on their functional roles, their evolutionary origin and functional diversity remain to be clarified. In this study, we compared genomes and interactomes of bHLH gene families from model organisms such as human, fly, worm, yeast and Arabidopsis to shed light on origin, evolution and functional diversity of this gene family, inferring that bHLHs might origin in prokaryotes and undergo divergence in different linage because of distinct evolutionary force.