Barnacle cement: a polymerization model based on evolutionary concepts
Barnacle cement: a polymerization model based on evolutionary concepts
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DOI：
10.1242/jeb.029884
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发表时间：
2009-11-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Rittschof, Daniel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dickinson, Gary H.;Vega, Irving E.;Rittschof, Daniel
生存所必需的酶和生化机制承受着极大的选择压力，并在进化过程中高度保守。我们将这一进化概念应用于藤壶水泥聚合，这是一个对藤壶健康至关重要的过程，涉及蛋白质的聚集和交联。水泥聚合的生化机理在很大程度上仍不清楚。我们假设，这个过程在生物化学上类似于血液凝固，这是一种关键的生理反应，也是基于蛋白质的聚集和交联性。与脊椎动物和无脊椎动物血液凝结的关键要素一样，藤壶水泥聚合涉及酶和结构前体的蛋白水解性激活、转谷氨酰胺酶交联和纤维蛋白的组装。结构蛋白的蛋白水解性激活最大限度地增加了与其他蛋白质和表面结合的可能性。转谷氨酰胺酶交联会增强水泥的完整性。值得注意的是，串联质谱仪和/或Western blotting在藤壶水泥中鉴定出了与牛胰蛋白酶和人转谷氨酰胺酶同源的表位和序列。与血液凝结类似，在蛋白分解激活过程中产生的多肽作为信号分子发挥作用，将分子水平的事件(蛋白质聚集)与行为反应(藤壶幼虫定居)联系起来。我们的结果引起了人们对高度保守的蛋白质聚合机制的关注，并揭示了一个长期存在的生化难题。我们认为，藤壶骨水泥聚合是创面愈合的一种特殊形式。藤壶水泥和血液之间共同的聚合机制可能是许多海洋动物胶水的主题。
Enzymes and biochemical mechanisms essential to survival are under extreme selective pressure and are highly conserved through evolutionary time. We applied this evolutionary concept to barnacle cement polymerization, a process critical to barnacle fitness that involves aggregation and cross-linking of proteins. The biochemical mechanisms of cement polymerization remain largely unknown. We hypothesized that this process is biochemically similar to blood clotting, a critical physiological response that is also based on aggregation and cross-linking of proteins. Like key elements of vertebrate and invertebrate blood clotting, barnacle cement polymerization was shown to involve proteolytic activation of enzymes and structural precursors, transglutaminase cross-linking and assembly of fibrous proteins. Proteolytic activation of structural proteins maximizes the potential for bonding interactions with other proteins and with the surface. Transglutaminase cross-linking reinforces cement integrity. Remarkably, epitopes and sequences homologous to bovine trypsin and human transglutaminase were identified in barnacle cement with tandem mass spectrometry and/or western blotting. Akin to blood clotting, the peptides generated during proteolytic activation functioned as signal molecules, linking a molecular level event ( protein aggregation) to a behavioral response (barnacle larval settlement). Our results draw attention to a highly conserved protein polymerization mechanism and shed light on a long-standing biochemical puzzle. We suggest that barnacle cement polymerization is a specialized form of wound healing. The polymerization mechanism common between barnacle cement and blood may be a theme for many marine animal glues.