Journal
BIOCHEMICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 527, Issue 4, Pages 947-952Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.04.135
Keywords
Placozoa; Ctenophora; Porifera; Cnidaria; Capillary electrophoresis; D-amino acids; Evolution; Neurotransmitters
Categories
Funding
- Human Frontiers Science Program [RGP0060/2017]
- National Science Foundation [1146575,1557923,1548121,1645219]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
D-amino acids are unique and essential signaling molecules in neural, hormonal, and immune systems. However, the presence of D-amino acids and their recruitment in early animals is mostly unknown due to limited information about prebilaterian metazoans. Here, we performed the comparative survey of L-/D-aspartate and L-/D-glutamate in representatives of four phyla of early-branching Metazoa: cnidarians (Aglantha); placozoans (Trichoplax), sponges (Sycon) and ctenophores (Pleurobrachia, Mnemiopsis, Bolinopsis, and Beroe), which are descendants of ancestral animal lineages distinct from Bilateria. Specifically, we used high-performance capillary electrophoresis for microchemical assays and quantification of the enantiomers. L-glutamate and L-aspartate were abundant analytes in all species studied. However, we showed that the placozoans, cnidarians, and sponges had high micromolar concentrations of D-aspartate, whereas D-glutamate was not detectable in our assays. In contrast, we found that in ctenophores, Dglutamate was the dominant enantiomer with no or trace amounts of D-aspartate. This situation illuminates prominent lineage-specific diversifications in the recruitment of D-amino acids and suggests distinct signaling functions of these molecules early in the animal evolution. We also hypothesize that a deep ancestry of such recruitment events might provide some constraints underlying the evolution of neural and other signaling systems in Metazoa. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available