Fig. 5. Partial sequence alignment of Ciona and human caspases. Ciona sequences were aligned and clustered using ClustalW (Thompson et al., 1994) with human sequences: HsCasp2, XP_036975 (amino acids 243-301); HsCasp9, XP_048851 (amino acids 220-285); HsCasp10, NP_001221 (amino acids 298-356); HsCasp8, XP_054990 (amino acids 285-343); HsCasp3, XP_054686 (amino acids 104-161); HsCasp7, NP_203125 (amino acids 127-184); HsCasp6, XP_003600 (amino acids 15-72). Three main clusters (framed) were obtained: CiCSP2a, b, c and d, related to human caspase 2; CiCSP9, related to human capsases 8, 9 and 10; and a larger cluster including three subgroups – CiCSP3 and human caspases 3 and 7, CiCSP7a-c and CiCSP6a-e. These latter are related to human caspase 6. For each cluster, residues shared by at least 80% and 60% sequences are indicated in red and blue, respectively. A consensus sequence is indicated below each frame. Conserved residues in each cluster or subgroup are shaded. Residues corresponding to the ICE pentapeptide are underlined.