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Evolutionary relationships of the metazoan beta gamma-crystallins, including that from the marine sponge Geodia cydonium.

ABSTRACT: beta gamma-crystallins are one major component of vertebrate lenses. Here the isolation and characterization of a cDNA, coding for the first beta gamma-crystallin molecule from an invertebrate species, the marine sponge Geodia cydonium, is described. The size of the transcript as determined by Northern blotting was 0.7 kb in length. The deduced amino acid sequence consists of 163 aa residues and comprises four repeated motifs which compose the two domains of the beta gamma-crystallin. Motif 3 contains the characteristic beta gamma-crystallin 'Greek key' motif signature, while in each of the three other repeats, one aa residue is replaced by an aa with the same physico-chemical property. The sponge peptide shows striking similarities to vertebrate beta gamma-crystallins. Analysis by neighbour joining of the sponge motifs with the two motifs present in spherulin 3a of Physarum polycephalum shows that motif 4 of the sponge beta gamma-crystallin was added as the last single sequence to the tree. The data support the view that the beta gamma-crystallin superfamily, present in eukaryotes, evolved from a common ancestor including also the sponge beta gamma-crystallin.

SUBMITTER: Krasko A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1688548 | biostudies-other | 1997 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Evolutionary relationships of the metazoan beta gamma-crystallins, including that from the marine sponge Geodia cydonium.

Krasko A A Müller I M IM Müller W E WE

Proceedings. Biological sciences 19970701 1384

beta gamma-crystallins are one major component of vertebrate lenses. Here the isolation and characterization of a cDNA, coding for the first beta gamma-crystallin molecule from an invertebrate species, the marine sponge Geodia cydonium, is described. The size of the transcript as determined by Northern blotting was 0.7 kb in length. The deduced amino acid sequence consists of 163 aa residues and comprises four repeated motifs which compose the two domains of the beta gamma-crystallin. Motif 3 co ...[more]

PMID: 9263473

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Project description:BackgroundThe origin of metazoan development and differentiation was contingent upon the evolution of cell adhesion, communication and cooperation mechanisms. While components of many of the major cell signalling pathways have been identified in a range of sponges (phylum Porifera), their roles in development have not been investigated and remain largely unknown. Here, we take the first steps toward reconstructing the developmental signalling systems used in the last common ancestor to living sponges and eumetazoans by studying the expression of genes encoding Wnt and TGF-beta signalling ligands during the embryonic development of a sponge.Methodology/principal findingsUsing resources generated in the recent sponge Amphimedon queenslandica (Demospongiae) genome project, we have recovered genes encoding Wnt and TGF-beta signalling ligands that are critical in patterning metazoan embryos. Both genes are expressed from the earliest stages of Amphimedon embryonic development in highly dynamic patterns. At the time when the Amphimedon embryos begin to display anterior-posterior polarity, Wnt expression becomes localised to the posterior pole and this expression continues until the swimming larva stage. In contrast, TGF-beta expression is highest at the anterior pole. As in complex animals, sponge Wnt and TGF-beta expression patterns intersect later in development during the patterning of a sub-community of cells that form a simple tissue-like structure, the pigment ring. Throughout development, Wnt and TGF-beta are expressed radially along the anterior-posterior axis.Conclusions/significanceWe infer from the expression of Wnt and TGF-beta in Amphimedon that the ancestor that gave rise to sponges, cnidarians and bilaterians had already evolved the capacity to direct the formation of relatively sophisticated body plans, with axes and tissues. The radially symmetrical expression patterns of Wnt and TGF-beta along the anterior-posterior axis of sponge embryos and larvae suggest that these signalling pathways contributed to establishing axial polarity in the very first metazoans.

Dataset Information

Evolutionary relationships of the metazoan beta gamma-crystallins, including that from the marine sponge Geodia cydonium.

Publications

Evolutionary relationships of the metazoan beta gamma-crystallins, including that from the marine sponge Geodia cydonium.

Similar Datasets

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