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The conservation and uniqueness of the caspase family in the basal chordate, amphioxus.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The caspase family, which plays a central role in apoptosis in metazoans, has undergone an expansion in amphioxus, increasing to 45 members through domain recombination and shuffling. RESULTS: In order to shed light on the conservation and uniqueness of this family in amphioxus, we cloned three representative caspase genes, designated as bbtCaspase-8, bbtCaspase-1/2 and bbtCaspase3-like, from the amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense. We found that bbtCaspase-8 with conserved protein architecture is involved in the Fas-associated death domain-Caspase-8 mediated pro-apoptotic extrinsic pathway, while bbtCaspase3-like may mediate a nuclear apoptotic pathway in amphioxus. Also, bbtCaspase-1/2 can co-localize with bbtFADD2 in the nucleus, and be recruited to the cytoplasm by amphioxus apoptosis associated speck-like proteins containing a caspase recruitment domain, indicating that bbtCaspase-1/2 may serve as a switch between apoptosis and caspase-dependent innate immune response in invertebrates. Finally, amphioxus extrinsic apoptotic pathway related caspases played important roles in early embryogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: Our study not only demonstrates the conservation of bbtCaspase-8 in apoptosis, but also reveals the unique features of several amphioxus caspases with novel domain architectures arose some 500 million years ago.

SUBMITTER: Xu L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3196919 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The conservation and uniqueness of the caspase family in the basal chordate, amphioxus.

Xu Liqun L Yuan Shaochun S Li Jun J Ruan Jie J Huang Shengfeng S Yang Manyi M Huang Huiqing H Chen Shangwu S Ren Zhenghua Z Xu Anlong A

BMC biology 20110921

<h4>Background</h4>The caspase family, which plays a central role in apoptosis in metazoans, has undergone an expansion in amphioxus, increasing to 45 members through domain recombination and shuffling.<h4>Results</h4>In order to shed light on the conservation and uniqueness of this family in amphioxus, we cloned three representative caspase genes, designated as bbtCaspase-8, bbtCaspase-1/2 and bbtCaspase3-like, from the amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense. We found that bbtCaspase-8 w ...[more]

PMID: 21933445

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Project description:BACKGROUND:The lancelet amphioxus (Cephalochordata) is a close relative of vertebrates and thus may enhance our understanding of vertebrate gene and genome evolution. In this context, the globins are one of the best studied models for gene family evolution. Previous biochemical studies have demonstrated the presence of an intracellular globin in notochord tissue and myotome of amphioxus, but the corresponding gene has not yet been identified. Genomic resources of Branchiostoma floridae now facilitate the identification, experimental confirmation and molecular evolutionary analysis of its globin gene repertoire. RESULTS:We show that B. floridae harbors at least fifteen paralogous globin genes, all of which reveal evidence of gene expression. The protein sequences of twelve globins display the conserved characteristics of a functional globin fold. In phylogenetic analyses, the amphioxus globin BflGb4 forms a common clade with vertebrate neuroglobins, indicating the presence of this nerve globin in cephalochordates. Orthology is corroborated by conserved syntenic linkage of BflGb4 and flanking genes. The kinetics of ligand binding of recombinantly expressed BflGb4 reveals that this globin is hexacoordinated with a high oxygen association rate, thus strongly resembling vertebrate neuroglobin. In addition, possible amphioxus orthologs of the vertebrate globin X lineage and of the myoglobin/cytoglobin/hemoglobin lineage can be identified, including one gene as a candidate for being expressed in notochord tissue. Genomic analyses identify conserved synteny between amphioxus globin-containing regions and the vertebrate ?-globin locus, possibly arguing against a late transpositional origin of the ?-globin cluster in vertebrates. Some amphioxus globin gene structures exhibit minisatellite-like tandem duplications of intron-exon boundaries ("mirages"), which may serve to explain the creation of novel intron positions within the globin genes. CONCLUSIONS:The identification of putative orthologs of vertebrate globin variants in the B. floridae genome underlines the importance of cephalochordates for elucidating vertebrate genome evolution. The present study facilitates detailed functional studies of the amphioxus globins in order to trace conserved properties and specific adaptations of respiratory proteins at the base of chordate evolution.

Dataset Information

The conservation and uniqueness of the caspase family in the basal chordate, amphioxus.

Publications

The conservation and uniqueness of the caspase family in the basal chordate, amphioxus.

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