Project description:Sponges (Porifera) are early-branching Metazoa who do not possess muscles or neurons, however are able to undergo a whole-body movement that involves the closure of their canal system and collapse of an epithelial tent. In this study we profile the proteomic responses of the freshwater sponge Spongilla lacustris during nitric oxide (NO) and agitation induced movements to elucidate the early evolution of coordination in animals. Specifically, we used tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling-based quantification of enriched phosphopeptides to systematically measure quantitative differences in protein phosphorylation. We identified and quantified 12165 unique phosphopeptides in the sponge. NO treatment resulted in quantitative changes of phosphorylation levels on 390 unique phosphopeptides mapping to 270 unique proteins. In turn, agitation led to quantitative changes of phosphorylation levels on 303 unique phosphopeptides (229 proteins).
Project description:Sponges (Porifera) are early-branching Metazoa who do not posess muscles or neurons, however are able to undergo a whole-body movement that involves the closure of their canal system and collapse of an epithelial tent. In this study we profile proteomic responses of the freshwater sponge Spongilla lacustris during agitation induced movements to elucidate the early evolution of coordination. Results from Thermal Proteome Profiling (TPP) experiments of agitated sponges suggest active secretion during the movement. Here, we use tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling-based quantification of proteins in the medium to systematically measure quantitative differences of secretion before and after agitation induced movement. In total, 146 proteins were detected in the medium, 47 of which were significantly upregulated during the movement.
Project description:Sponges (Porifera) are early-branching Metazoa who do not possess muscles or neurons, however are able to undergo a whole-body movement that involves the closure of their canal system and collapse of an epithelial tent. In this study we profile proteomic responses of the freshwater sponge Spongilla lacustris during nitric oxide (NO) and agitation induced movements to elucidate the early evolution of coordination. Specifically, we measure condition-dependent changes in protein thermal stability and abundance using Thermal proteome profiling (TPP). These changes are the result of proteins undergoing stabilizing or destabilizing conformational changes broadly caused by e.g. the binding or dissociation of small molecules to the proteins, the formation or loss of protein-protein interactions or a change in post-translational modifications.
Project description:Three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) represents a convenient model to study microevolution - adaptation to freshwater environment. While genetic adaptations to freshwater are well-studied, epigenetic adaptations attracted little attention. In this work, we investigated the role of DNA methylation in the adaptation of marine stickleback population to freshwater conditions. DNA methylation profiling was performed in marine and freshwater populations of sticklebacks, as well as in marine sticklebacks placed into freshwater environment and freshwater sticklebacks placed into seawater. For the first time, we demonstrated that genes encoding ion channels kcnd3, cacna1fb, gja3 are differentially methylated between marine and freshwater populations. We also showed that after placing marine stickleback into fresh water, its DNA methylation profile partially converges to the one of a freshwater stickleback. This suggests that immediate epigenetic response to freshwater conditions can be maintained in freshwater population. Interestingly, we observed enhanced epigenetic plasticity in freshwater sticklebacks that may serve as a compensatory regulatory mechanism for the lack of genetic variation in the freshwater population. Some of the regions that were reported previously to be under selection in freshwater populations also show differential methylation. Thus, epigenetic changes might represent a parallel mechanism of adaptation along with genetic selection in freshwater environment. This is the RNA-seq experiment, DNA methylation data (bisulfite-seq) is provided under accession number GSE82310.
Project description:This work reveals the deeply conserved gene repertoire of animal stem cells, from sponges to mammals. mRNA profiles totipotent stem cells (archeocytes), choanocytes, other differentiated cell types in a freshwater sponge and were mapped on the reference transcriptome generated in the same study
Project description:Three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) represents a convenient model to study microevolution - adaptation to freshwater environment. While genetic adaptations to freshwater are well-studied, epigenetic adaptations attracted little attention. In this work, we investigated the role of DNA methylation in the adaptation of marine stickleback population to freshwater conditions. DNA methylation profiling was performed in marine and freshwater populations of sticklebacks, as well as in marine sticklebacks placed into freshwater environment and freshwater sticklebacks placed into seawater. For the first time, we demonstrated that genes encoding ion channels kcnd3, cacna1fb, gja3 are differentially methylated between marine and freshwater populations. We also showed that after placing marine stickleback into fresh water, its DNA methylation profile partially converges to the one of a freshwater stickleback. This suggests that immediate epigenetic response to freshwater conditions can be maintained in freshwater population. Interestingly, we observed enhanced epigenetic plasticity in freshwater sticklebacks that may serve as a compensatory regulatory mechanism for the lack of genetic variation in the freshwater population. Some of the regions that were reported previously to be under selection in freshwater populations also show differential methylation. Thus, epigenetic changes might represent a parallel mechanism of adaptation along with genetic selection in freshwater environment.