Compound dynamics and combinatorial patterns of amino acid repeats encode a system of evolutionary and developmental markers

Homopolymeric amino acid repeats (AARs) in some developmental proteins (DPs) regulate certain aspects of organismal morphology and behavior, suggesting an evolutionary role for AARs as developmental 'tuning knobs'. It is still unclear, however, whether these are occasional protein-specific phenomena, or hints at the existence of a whole AAR-based regulatory system in DPs. Using novel approaches to trace their functional and evolutionary history, we find quantitative evidence supporting a generalized, combinatorial role of AARs in developmental processes with evolutionary implications. We observe non-random AAR distributions and combinations in HOX and other DPs, as well as in their interactomes, defining elements of a combinatorial functional code whereby different AARs and their combinations appear preferentially in proteins involved in the development of specific organs/systems. Such functional associations can be either static or display detectable evolutionary dynamics. These findings suggest that progressive changes in AAR occurrence/combination, by altering embryonic development, may have contributed to taxonomic divergence, leaving detectable traces in the evolutionary history of proteomes. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that the evolutionary trajectories of the 20 AARs are highly interrelated and their individual or compound dynamics can sharply mark taxonomic boundaries, or display clock-like trends, carrying overall a strong phylogenetic signal. These findings provide quantitative evidence and an interpretive framework outlining a combinatorial system of AARs whose compound dynamics mark at the same time DP functions and evolutionary transitions.