Figure 1
From: Learning the language of cell-cell communication through connexin channels
A molecular phylogenetic tree for human connexin protein sequences (HCx) and rat connexin 33 (rCx33). The divergent sequence portions (the intracellular loop and the carboxy-terminal domain) were removed from the multiple alignments. The distance matrices were then analyzed by the neighbor-joining method of Saitou and Nei (Mol Biol Evol 1987, 4:406-425), producing an unrooted molecular phylogenetic tree. The connexin family can be broadly separated into three main subgroups, the historical α (green) and β (blue) and a more divergent non-α non-β branch. A sequence divergence of 10% is indicated by the scale bar. The tree is provided courtesy of Daniele Condorelli (University of Catania, Italy).