Nesd is an evolutionarily conserved protein. (A) At the top is a schematic alignment of Drosophila Nesd and its human counterpart SHCBP1. The Nesd homology domain (NHD) and pectin lyase–like domain (PLD) are indicated. The percentages of identities (id: 27%) and positives (similarity, sim: 54%) found in the NHD regions of the two orthologues are also indicated. An alignment of the NHD found in Drosophila, human, mouse, and frog is shown at the bottom using the Blosum62 coloring scheme (matches are highlighted in dark blue, and positive alignment scores are highlighted in light blue). The domain shows high conservation throughout the four species, as depicted by the conservation histogram below the alignment (yellow and brown bars); numerical indices and gradual shading reflect the conservation of physicochemical properties in the alignment, with identities scoring highest and indicated by asterisks. (B) Unrooted phylogenetic tree of the Nesd orthologues in 10 species spanning vertebrates, insects, and echinoderms. The tree, which shows the evolutionary relations between the proteins, is consistent with the corresponding species tree.