Shedding new light on opsin evolution Porter, Megan L; Blasic, Joseph R; Bok, Michael J ...
Proceedings - Royal Society. Biological sciences/Proceedings - Royal Society. Biological Sciences,
01/2012, Letnik:
279, Številka:
1726
Journal Article
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Opsin proteins are essential molecules in mediating the ability of animals to detect and use light for diverse biological functions. Therefore, understanding the evolutionary history of opsins is key ...to understanding the evolution of light detection and photoreception in animals. As genomic data have appeared and rapidly expanded in quantity, it has become possible to analyse opsins that functionally and histologically are less well characterized, and thus to examine opsin evolution strictly from a genetic perspective. We have incorporated these new data into a large-scale, genome-based analysis of opsin evolution. We use an extensive phylogeny of currently known opsin sequence diversity as a foundation for examining the evolutionary distributions of key functional features within the opsin clade. This new analysis illustrates the lability of opsin protein-expression patterns, site-specific functionality (i.e. counterion position) and G-protein binding interactions. Further, it demonstrates the limitations of current model organisms, and highlights the need for further characterization of many of the opsin sequence groups with unknown function.
Stomatopod crustaceans, or mantis shrimp, are renowned for their complex visual systems. Their array of 16 types of photoreceptors provides complex color reception, as well as linear and circular ...polarization sensitivity 1–6. The least-understood components of their retina are the UV receptors, of which there are up to six distinct, narrowly tuned spectral types 4. Here we show that in the stomatopod species Neogonodactylus oerstedii, this set of receptors is based on only two visual pigments. Surprisingly, five of the six UV receptor types contain the same visual pigment. The various UV receptors are spectrally tuned by a novel set of four short- and long-pass UV-specific optical filters in the overlying crystalline cones. These filters are composed of various mycosporine-like amino acid (MAA) pigments. Commonly referred to as “nature’s sunscreens,” MAAs are usually employed for UV photoprotection 7, 8, but mantis shrimp uniquely incorporate them into powerful spectral tuning filters, extending and diversifying their preeminently elaborate photoreceptive arsenal.
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•Mantis shrimp have only two UV visual pigments in their retinas•Four types of UV optical filters are found in specific facets of the compound eye•The four UV filters and two visual pigments combine to tune six receptor types•The filters are composed of pigments akin to biological sunscreens
Bok et al. describe a unique system of UV spectral tuning in the eyes of the mantis shrimp Neogonodactylus oerstedii. Specifically, two visual pigments in conjunction with four optical filters, composed of biological sunscreen pigments, produce six spectral types of UV photoreceptors.
Fan worms (Annelida: Sabellidae) are sessile polychaetes that spend their adult lives in tubes and project their fans, composed of radiolar tentacles, up into the water column for respiration and ...filter feeding. To protect the fan from predation, many species have evolved unique compound eyes on the radioles that function as shadow or motion detectors, eliciting a rapid withdrawal response in reaction to encroaching objects in the water column 1,2. The structure of the eyes, their complexity, and their arrangements on the radioles are very diverse among sabellid genera 3 and they display many characteristics atypical of polychaete eyes, such as ciliary photoreceptors 3,4 that hyperpolarize in response to illumination 5. Here we examine the retinal transcriptome of the radiolar eyes from the fan worm Megalomma interrupta. We find that the opsin, the protein component of light sensitive visual pigments, and other phototransduction cascade signaling proteins expressed in these eyes are related to those commonly associated with vertebrate ciliary photoreceptors, as opposed to the rhabdomeric receptors found in the primary eyes of many invertebrates. With previous anatomical and physiological observations, these results suggest that the radiolar eyes arose independently in fan worms.
ABSTRACT
Using mid-infrared star formation rate and stellar mass indicators in WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), we construct and contrast the relation between star formation rate and ...stellar mass for isolated and paired galaxies. Our samples comprise a selection of AMIGA (Analysis of the interstellar Medium in Isolated GAlaxies; isolated galaxies) and pairs of ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) galaxies with H i detections such that we can examine the relationship between H i content (gas fraction, H i deficiency) and galaxy location on the main sequence (MS) in these two contrasting environments. We derive for the first time an H i scaling relation for isolated galaxies using WISE stellar masses, and thereby establish a baseline predictor of H i content that can be used to assess the impact of environment on H i content when compared with samples of galaxies in different environments. We use this updated relation to determine the H i deficiency of both our paired and isolated galaxies. Across all the quantities examined as a function of environment in this work (MS location, gas fraction, and H i deficiency), the AMIGA sample of isolated galaxies is found to have the lower dispersion: σAMIGA = 0.37 versus σPAIRS = 0.55 on the MS, σAMIGA = 0.44 versus σPAIRS = 0.54 in gas fraction, and σAMIGA = 0.28 versus σPAIRS = 0.34 in H i deficiency. We also note fewer isolated quiescent galaxies, 3 (0.6${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$), compared to 12 (2.3${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) quiescent pair members. Our results suggest the differences in scatter measured between our samples are environment driven. Galaxies in isolation behave relatively predictably, and galaxies in more densely populated environments adopt a more stochastic behaviour, across a broad range of quantities.
Sabellarids, also known as honeycomb or sandcastle worms, when building their tubes, produce chemical signals (free fatty acids) that are responsible for larval settlement and the formation of ...three-dimensional aggregations. The larval palps and the dorsal hump (becoming the median organ in adults) are presumed to participate in such a substrate selection during settlement. Notably, the sabellariid median organ is an apparently unique organ among annelids that has been attributed with a sensory function and perhaps with some affinities to the nuchal organs of other polychaetes. Nevertheless, detailed investigations of this prominent character complex including ultrastructural examinations are lacking so far.
Our comprehensive investigations provide data about the anterior sensory organs in Sabellariidae and inform about their transformation during pelagic larval development. We used a comparative approach including immunostaining with subsequent confocal laser scanning microscopy (clsm), histological sections as well as electron microscopy in a range of larval and adult stages of two sabellariid species. We find that the neuronal innervation as well as the ultrastructure of the sabellariid ciliary structures along the median organ are highly comparable with that of nuchal organs known from other polychaetes. Furthermore, the myoinhibitory protein (MIP) - a protein known to be also involved into chemo-sensation - was detected in the region of the larval median organ. Moreover, we reveal the presence of an unusual type of photoreceptor as part of the median organ in Idanthyrsus australiensis with a corrugated sensory membrane ultrastructure unlike those observed in the segmental ocelli of other polychaetes.
We are describing for the first time the nuchal organ-like structures in different developmental stages of two species of Sabellariidae. The external morphology, neuronal innervation, developmental fate and ultrastructure of the newly-discovered median organ-based ciliary pits are comparable with the characteristics known for annelid nuchal organs and therefore indicate a homology of both sensory complexes. The presence of myoinhibitory peptide (MIP) in the respective region supports such a hypothesis and exhibits the possibility of an involvement of the entire sabellariid median organ complex, and in particular the prominent ciliated pits, in chemo-sensation.
ABSTRACT
We extend the analysis of Bok et al. (2020) in which the H i content of isolated galaxies from the AMIGA (Analysis of the interstellar Medium in Isolated GAlaxies) sample and selected paired ...galaxies from ALFALFA (Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA) were examined as a potential driver of galaxy location on the WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) mid-infrared SFR–M⋆ sequence. By further characterizing the isolated and pair galaxy samples, i.e. in terms of optical galaxy morphology, a more detailed and quantitative description of local galaxy environment by way of the local number density (η) and tidal strength (Q) parameters, star formation efficiency (SFE$_{\rm {H{\small {\rm ~I}}}$), and H i integrated profile asymmetries, we present plausible pathways for the broadening of the pair sample H i deficiency distribution towards both high and low deficiencies compared to the narrower isolated galaxy sample distribution (i.e. σPAIRS = 0.34 versus σAMIGA = 0.28). We associate the gas-rich tail of the pair deficiency distribution with the highest Q values, large profile asymmetries, and low SFEs. From this, we infer that merger activity is enhancing gas supplies, as well as disrupting the efficiency of star formation, via strong gravitational torques. The gas-poor wing of the deficiency distribution appears to be populated with galaxies in denser environments (with larger η values on average), more akin to groups. Despite our gas-rich selection criterion, there is a small population of early-type galaxies in the pair sample, which primarily fall in the positive deficiency wing of the distribution. These results suggest that a combination of a denser galaxy environment, early-type morphology, and higher stellar mass is contributing to the broadening of the deficiency distribution towards larger deficiencies.
The molecular mechanisms controlling post-translational modifications of p21 have been pursued assiduously in recent years. Here, utilizing mass-spectrometry analysis and site-specific acetyl-p21 ...antibody, two lysine residues of p21, located at amino-acid sites 161 and 163, were identified as Tip60-mediated acetylation targets for the first time. Detection of adriamycin-induced p21 acetylation, which disappeared after Tip60 depletion with concomitant destabilization of p21 and disruption of G1 arrest, suggested that Tip60-mediated p21 acetylation is necessary for DNA damage-induced cell-cycle regulation. The ability of 2KQ, a mimetic of acetylated p21, to induce cell-cycle arrest and senescence was significantly enhanced in p21 null MEFs compared with those of cells expressing wild-type p21. Together, these observations demonstrate that Tip60-mediated p21 acetylation is a novel and essential regulatory process required for p21-dependent DNA damage-induced cell-cycle arrest.
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