Earlier phylogenetic studies on myosin[1, 2] adopted the following convention: Conventional, two-headed, filament forming myosins should remain Myosins II. The original class of unconventional myosins - which now contains the protozoan myosins, brush-border myosin I and it's homologues and various other short myosins I's - should remain Myosin I, while all other classes should be numbered in order of discovery. This approach is continued here, without dispensing with the names by which the various new myosins have become known. Myosins classes are given in roman numerals, and if there are multiple members from the same organism within a class, these are named in alphabetical order according to discovery (giving Dictyostelium IA, IB, IC, ID, IE and Rat myr1 (IA), myr2 (IB), myr3 (IC) ,myr4 (ID) etc.). The origin of each myosin is represented by the first letter of the genus and species. So far there is only one ambiguity: Ac represents both Acanthamoeba castellanii and Acetabularia cliftonii. In this case the Acetabularia myosins have retained their original names.

Key:
Abbreviation    Full Terms

Ac	Acanthamoeba castellanii
Acl	Acetabularia cliftonii
Ai	Aequipecten irradians (scallop) 
At	Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress)
Bm	Brugia malayi
Bt	Bos taurus (cow)
Cc	Chara corallina
Ce	Caenorhabditis elegans
Cr	Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Dd	Dictyostelium discoidium
Dm	Drosophila melanogaster
En	Emiricella nidulans (Aspergillus)
Eh	Entamoeba histolytica
Gg	Gallus gallus (chicken)
Ha	Helianthus annus (sunflower)
Hs	Homo sapiens (human)
Lp	Limulus polyphemus (horseshoe crab)
Ma	Mesocricetus auratus (hamster)
Mm	Mus musculus (mouse)
Ms	Morone saxatilis (striped bass)
Oc	Oryctolagus cuniculus (rabbit)
Ov	Onchocerca volvulus (a nematode)
Pf	Plasmodium falciparum (malaria)
Pg	Pyricularia grisea (rice blast fungus)
Rc	Rana catesbeiana (bullfrog)
Rn	Rattus norvegicus (rat)
Sc	Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast)
Sm	Schistosoma mansoni
Ss	Sus scrofa domestica (domestic pig)
Tg	Toxoplasma gondii
Tt	Tetrahymena thermophila
Xl	Xenopus laevis (clawed toad)
Zm	Zea mays (maize)

Adren	Bovine Adrenal (myosin I)
ank	Ankyrin like repeats
Bb	Brush Border Myosin I
CaA	Cardiac alpha (myosin II)
CaB	Cardiac beta (myosin II)
chs	Chitin synthase type V homology
csm	Chitin synthase-myosin
FSk	Fast Skeletal (myosin II) = striated
FSkE	Embryonic Fast Skeletal (myosin II)
HMWMI	High Molecular Weight Myosin I
kin	Kinase domain
neur	Neuronal (myosin II)
nm	Non-muscle (myosin II)
PDZ	Myosin like protein with a PDZ domain.
Peri	Perinatal (myosin II)
sm	Smooth muscle (myosin II)

References

[1] Goodson, H.V. and Spudich, J.A. (1993) Molecular Evolution Of the Myosin Family - Relationships Derived From Comparisons Of Amino-Acid-Sequences. Proceedings Of the National Academy Of Sciences Of the United States Of America, 90(2):659-663.

[2] Cheney, R.E., Riley, M.A. and Mooseker, M.S. (1993) Phylogenetic analysis of the myosin superfamily. Cell Motil.Cytoskel., 24:215-223.

[3] Reinhard, J., Scheel, A.A., Diekmann, D., Hall, A., Ruppert, C. and Bahler, M. (1995) A Novel Type Of Myosin Implicated In Signaling By Rho-Family Gtpases. Embo Journal, 14(4):697-704.

Jamie Cope and Tony Hodge

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Last updated Wednesday, 12th June 2002