Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35338-7
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41890853, 41825013, 42006108]
- Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of CAS [ZDBS-LY-DQC004]
- Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation [2021A1515011380]
- European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union [EC/H2020/755659]
- Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS [XDB42030204]
- Key Deployment Project of COMS of CAS [COMS2020Q14]
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The study reveals the association between male pregnancy in seahorses and specific immunological adaptations. Amino acid replacement in the tlx1 transcription factor is linked to asplenia in seahorses, indicating the loss of spleen is related to the immune system. Comparative genomics also suggests that the complexity of immune system gene repertoire decreases as parental care intensity increases.
In the highly derived syngnathid fishes (pipefishes, seadragons & seahorses), the evolution of sex-role reversed brooding behavior culminated in the seahorse lineage's male pregnancy, whose males feature a specialized brood pouch into which females deposit eggs during mating. Then, eggs are intimately engulfed by a placenta-like tissue that facilitates gas and nutrient exchange. As fathers immunologically tolerate allogenic embryos, it was suggested that male pregnancy co-evolved with specific immunological adaptations. Indeed, here we show that a specific amino-acid replacement in the tlx1 transcription factor is associated with seahorses' asplenia (loss of spleen, an organ central in the immune system), as confirmed by a CRISPR-Cas9 experiment using zebrafish. Comparative genomics across the syngnathid phylogeny revealed that the complexity of the immune system gene repertoire decreases as parental care intensity increases. The synchronous evolution of immunogenetic alterations and male pregnancy supports the notion that male pregnancy co-evolved with the immunological tolerance of the embryo.
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