Swati Singh and Anoop Chaturvedi
Activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule ALCAM or CD166 is a type I membrane protein that belongs to the Ig superfamily, and it has five extracellular variable type and constant type Ig domains and a single transmembrane domain. Activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule is expressed in various tissues, cancers, and cancer-initiating cells. Alterations in expression of ALCAM have been reported in several human tumors, and cell adhesion functions have been proposed to explain its association with cancer. The present study has been done on wide range of ALCAM protein sequences and their homologs from various organisms. In order to decipher the phylogenetic blueprints the proteins from higher organisms to the lower hierarchical order of organisms were selected as the kernel of the investigation. The tree was drawn by Maximum parsimony method while using the bootstrapping as a test of inferred phylogeny. The phylogenetic trees were constructed from multiple aligned sequences showing bootstrap values on nodes and species codes on leaves. The analysis of data led to a single most consistent tree. The study endow with a fine idea about the evolutionary pattern of this protein family and their homologs across an extensive array of animal phyla. Moreover the data provide a basis for future functional studies on this vital protein family.
