The secreted glycoprotein vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent and specific mitogen for vascular endothelial cells, capable of stimulating angiogenesis during embryonic development and tumor formation. Despite intensive research, the functions of several VEGF family members remain a mystery. | Turk J Biol 29 (2005) 217-227 © TÜB‹TAK Phylogenetic Analysis of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Diversity Murat KASAP Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Kocaeli University, Umuttepe, Kocaeli - TURKEY Received: Abstract: The secreted glycoprotein vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent and specific mitogen for vascular endothelial cells, capable of stimulating angiogenesis during embryonic development and tumor formation. Despite intensive research, the functions of several VEGF family members remain a mystery. Insight into their evolutionary relationships could profoundly improve our understanding of why there are so many VEGFs and why we have not been able to dissect their function to our satisfaction. It appears from the presence of several structurally related VEGF proteins that VEGF proteins do have a long divergence history. We investigated the evolution and phylogenetic relationships among VEGF proteins by using the information from the molecular data. Consistent phylogenetic trees were generated with character-based and distance-based methods. Several gene duplication events were detected that led to the formation of today’s VEGF diversity. Key Words: Vascular endothelial growth factor, phylogeny, evolution Vaskülar Endotelial Büyüme Faktor Çeflitlili¤inin Filogenetik ‹ncelenmesi Özet: Salg›lanan glikoprotein vaskülar endotelial büyüme faktörü (VEGF) vaskülar endotelial hücreleri için özgül ve güçlü bir mitojen olup embriyo geliflimi ve tümor oluflumu s›ras›nda anjiyogenesisi uyarabilme kapasitesine sahiptir. Bu konuda fazla miktarda araflt›rma yap›lmas›na ra¤men, baz› VEGF üyelerinin fonksiyonlar› bilinmemektedir. VEGF proteinleri aras›ndaki filogenetik iliflkinin ortaya ç›kar›lmas› neden bu kadar fazla sayida VEGF proteininin oldu¤u ve neden bizlerin hala VEGF proteinlerinin fonksiyonlar› hakk›nda yeterince bilgi sahibi olamad›¤›m›z gerçe¤inin ortaya ç›kmas›na yard›m edecektir. Yap›sal iliflkisi olan befl .
