Dataset Information

Molecular analysis of the evolutionary significance of ultraviolet vision in vertebrates.

ABSTRACT: Many fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and some mammals use UV vision for such basic activities as foraging, mate selection, and communication. UV vision is mediated by UV pigments in the short wavelength-sensitive type 1 (SWS1) group that absorb light maximally (lambda max) at approximately 360 nm. Reconstructed SWS1 pigments of most vertebrate ancestors have lambda max values of approximately 360 nm, whereas the ancestral avian pigment has a lambda max value of 393 nm. In the nonavian lineage, UV vision in many modern species is inherited directly from the vertebrate ancestor, whereas violet vision in others has evolved by different amino acid replacements at approximately 10 specific sites. In the avian lineage, the origin of the violet pigment and the subsequent restoration of UV pigments in some species are caused by amino acid replacements F49V/F86S/L116V/S118A and S90C, respectively. The use of UV vision is associated strongly with UV-dependent behaviors of organisms. When UV light is not available or is unimportant to organisms, the SWS1 gene can become nonfunctional, as exemplified by coelacanth and dolphin.

SUBMITTER: Shi Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC166225 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Molecular analysis of the evolutionary significance of ultraviolet vision in vertebrates.

Shi Yongsheng Y Yokoyama Shozo S

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20030624 14

Many fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and some mammals use UV vision for such basic activities as foraging, mate selection, and communication. UV vision is mediated by UV pigments in the short wavelength-sensitive type 1 (SWS1) group that absorb light maximally (lambda max) at approximately 360 nm. Reconstructed SWS1 pigments of most vertebrate ancestors have lambda max values of approximately 360 nm, whereas the ancestral avian pigment has a lambda max value of 393 nm. In the nonavian lineage ...[more]

PMID: 12824471

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Project description:The vertebrate genome is a result of two rapid and successive rounds of whole genome duplication, referred to as 1R and 2R. Furthermore, teleost fish have undergone a third whole genome duplication (3R) specific to their lineage, resulting in the retention of multiple gene paralogs. The more recent 3R event in teleosts provides a unique opportunity to gain insight into how genes evolve through specific evolutionary processes. In this study we compare molecular activities of vitamin D receptors (VDR) from basal species that diverged at key points in vertebrate evolution in order to infer derived and ancestral VDR functions of teleost paralogs. Species include the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), a 1R jawless fish; the little skate (Leucoraja erinacea), a cartilaginous fish that diverged after the 2R event; and the Senegal bichir (Polypterus senegalus), a primitive 2R ray-finned fish. Saturation binding assays and gel mobility shift assays demonstrate high affinity ligand binding and classic DNA binding characteristics of VDR has been conserved across vertebrate evolution. Concentration response curves in transient transfection assays reveal EC50 values in the low nanomolar range, however maximum transactivational efficacy varies significantly between receptor orthologs. Protein-protein interactions were investigated using co-transfection, mammalian 2-hybrid assays, and mutations of coregulator activation domains. We then combined these results with our previous study of VDR paralogs from 3R teleosts into a bioinformatics analysis. Our results suggest that 1, 25D3 acts as a partial agonist in basal species. Furthermore, our bioinformatics analysis suggests that functional differences between VDR orthologs and paralogs are influenced by differential protein interactions with essential coregulator proteins. We speculate that we may be observing a change in the pharmacodynamics relationship between VDR and 1, 25D3 throughout vertebrate evolution that may have been driven by changes in protein-protein interactions between VDR and essential coregulators.

Project description:BackgroundMany vertebrate species use ultraviolet (UV) reception for such basic behaviors as foraging and mating, but many others switched to violet reception and improved their visual resolution. The respective phenotypes are regulated by the short wavelength-sensitive (SWS1) pigments that absorb light maximally (λmax) at ~360 and 395-440 nm. Because of strong epistatic interactions, the biological significance of the extensive mutagenesis results on the molecular basis of spectral tuning in SWS1 pigments and the mechanisms of their phenotypic adaptations remains uncertain.ResultsThe magnitudes of the λmax-shifts caused by mutations in a present-day SWS1 pigment and by the corresponding forward mutations in its ancestral pigment are often dramatically different. To resolve these mutagenesis results, the A/B ratio, in which A and B are the areas formed by amino acids at sites 90, 113 and 118 and by those at sites 86, 90 and 118 and 295, respectively, becomes indispensable. Then, all critical mutations that generated the λmax of a SWS1 pigment can be identified by establishing that 1) the difference between the λmax of the ancestral pigment with these mutations and that of the present-day pigment is small (3 ~ 5 nm, depending on the entire λmax-shift) and 2) the difference between the corresponding A/B ratios is < 0.002.ConclusionMolecular adaptation has been studied mostly by using comparative sequence analyses. These statistical results provide biological hypotheses and need to be tested using experimental means. This is an opportune time to explore the currently available and new genetic systems and test these statistical hypotheses. Evaluating the λmaxs and A/B ratios of mutagenized present-day and their ancestral pigments, we now have a method to identify all critical mutations that are responsible for phenotypic adaptation of SWS1 pigments. The result also explains spectral tuning of the same pigments, a central unanswered question in phototransduction.

Dataset Information

Molecular analysis of the evolutionary significance of ultraviolet vision in vertebrates.

Publications

Molecular analysis of the evolutionary significance of ultraviolet vision in vertebrates.

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