The ancestry of deuterostome photoreceptors - molecular and structural investigations in echinoids and enteropneusts

后口光感受器的祖先 - 海胆和肠菌的分子和结构研究

• 批准号: 149240369
• 负责人: Dr. Harald Hausen
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institutt for geovitenskap
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Priority Programmes
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2008-12-31 至 2012-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/149240369?language=en
• 关键词: ancestry; deuterostome; photoreceptors; molecular; structural

The integration of molecular and structural data put forth new intriguing insights into evolution and function of animal photoreceptor cells and overrode several traditional evolutionary hypotheses. It became clear that opsins diverged early during animal evolution giving rise to several distinct opsin and photoreceptor cell types with own functional specifity. This scenario is corroborated by the existence of photoreceptor cell type specific sets of cell fate determining transcription factors in distinctly related organisms. Even in vertebrates and the allied tunicates and cephalochordates numerous new opsins and photoreceptor cell types were recently found and an exciting research field arose covering biochemical, physiological and developmental aspects of light sensation. In the applied collaborative project we aim to uncover the evolutionary roots of this observed diversity by combining gene expression studies of opsins and other molecular photoreceptor cell markers with immunohistochemical and electron microscopic investigations in basal deuterostomes. Analysis of the recently sequenced genomes of the echinoid S. purpuratus and the enteropneust S. kowalevskii uncovered the existence of several different opsin types in these animals. With our integrate approach we will identify and characterize the respective photoreceptor cells and get deep insights into the evolutionary origin and ancestral function of various types of deuterostome photoreceptors.

分子和结构数据的整合为动物感光细胞的进化和功能提供了新的有趣的见解，并推翻了一些传统的进化假设。很明显，在动物进化的早期，视蛋白发生了分化，产生了几种不同的视蛋白和光感受器细胞类型，它们具有自己的功能特异性。在明显相关的生物体中，感光细胞类型特定的细胞命运决定转录因子的存在证实了这种情况。即使在脊椎动物及其相关的被囊动物和头脊索动物中，最近也发现了许多新的视蛋白和光感受器细胞类型，并且出现了一个令人兴奋的研究领域，涵盖光感觉的生化，生理和发育方面。在应用合作项目中，我们的目标是通过结合视蛋白和其他分子光感受器细胞标记物的基因表达研究，以及对基底后口动物的免疫组织化学和电镜研究，揭示这种观察到的多样性的进化根源。最近测序的刺毛虫S. purpuratus和企业家S. kowalevskii的基因组分析揭示了这些动物中存在几种不同的视蛋白类型。通过我们的整合方法，我们将识别和表征各自的光感受器细胞，并深入了解各种类型的后口光感受器的进化起源和祖先功能。