Conclusions

In this project, we have done an extensive search in Vipera berus genome to find the selenoproteins, the cysteine containing homologous and the essential machinery proteins for their synthesis. We have predicted the gens in an automatic way, taking the Anolis carolinensis proteins as reference, as it is the SelenoDB species with the most phylogenetically close relationship to Vipera berus. In addition, we have predicted the SECIs elements in the 3'-UTR region of the predicted gene of the selenoproteins and their homologous, using the SecisSearch3 software.

Our results suggest that Vipera berus contains the following proteins:

- Selenoproteins: DI1 (3 paralogous copies), DI2, GPx, GPx2, GPx3, SelP1, SelP2, TR3, Sel15, SelH, SelI, SelN, SelR1, SeleT, SelU1, SPS.

- Cysteine containing homologous: GPx4, GPx8, SelR2, SelR3, Sel0.

- Machinery: SPS1 (2 paralogous copies), eEFsec (2 paralogous copies), SBP2 (2 paralogous copies), SecS, PSTK, Secp43.

We have not found the following proteins: TR, SelK, SelM, SelS, SelU2, SelW.

In conclusion, we would like to point out the principal limitacions of our results. Vipera berus genome is fragmented in multiple contigs, hence it difficults the selenoprotein prediction and we cannot assure the introns and exons of the gens are correctly organized. Moreover, our reference queries are Anolis carolinensis proteins and this annotation may contain unknown errors . Our whole project is based on the homology between Anolis carolinensis and Vipera berus genomes, without taking into account that Vipera berus may contain other selenoproteins, which are not contained in Anolis carolinensis genome.