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Evolution and functional diversity of jellyfish opsins.
Journal article

Evolution and functional diversity of jellyfish opsins.

  • Suga H Department of Cell Biology, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 70, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
  • Schmid V
  • Gehring WJ
  • 2007-12-28
Published in:
  • Current biology : CB. - 2008
Animals
Cloning, Molecular
DNA, Complementary
Evolution, Molecular
Eye
Gonads
Hydrozoa
Light
Molecular Sequence Data
Phylogeny
Rod Opsins
Sexual Behavior, Animal
Vision, Ocular
English Cnidaria are the most basal animal phylum possessing complex eyes [1]. Their eyes predominantly use ciliary photoreceptor cells (c-PRCs) like vertebrates, whereas insect eyes use rhabdomeric photoreceptor cells (r-PRCs) [1-4]. These two cell types show not only different cytoarchitectures but distinct phototransduction cascades, which are triggered by the respective types of opsins (e.g., [5]), ciliary opsins (c-opsins) and rhabdomeric opsins (r-opsins) [6]. Recent reports suggested that the c- and r-PRCs and their respective opsins diverged at least before the deuterostome-protostome split [7-9]. To study the earlier evolution of animal PRCs and opsins, we investigated two hydrozoan jellyfishes. We report here the first-characterized cnidarian opsins. Molecular phylogeny revealed that the cloned 20 jellyfish opsins, together with all the opsins from a hydra and some from a sea anemone, are more closely related to the c-opsins than to any other major opsin subfamily, indicating that the divergence of c- and r-opsins antedates the Cnidaria-Bilateria split. Possible scenarios of animal PRC evolution are discussed. Furthermore, Cladonema opsins show several distinct tissue- and stage-specific expression patterns. The expression of specific opsins in the eyes suggests a role in vision, whereas that in the gonads suggests a role in light-controlled release of gametes.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/227811
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