The loss of the hemoglobin H2S-binding function in annelids from sulfide-free habitats reveals molecular adaptation driven by Darwinian positive selection

The hemoglobin of the deep-sea hydrothermal vent vestimentif-eran Riftia pachyptila (annelid) is able to bind toxic hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to free cysteine residues and to transport it to fuel endosymbiotic sulfide-oxidising bacteria. The cysteine residues are conserved key amino acids in annelid globins living in sulfide-rich environments, but are absent in annelid globins from sulfide-free environments. Synonymous and nonsynonymous substitution analysis from two different sets of orthologous annelid globin genes from sulfide rich and sulfide free environments have been performed to understand how the sulfide-binding function of hemoglobin appeared and has been maintained during the course of evolution. This study reveals that the sites occupied by free-cysteine residues in annelids living in sulfide-rich environments and occupied by other amino acids in annelids from sulfide-free environments, have undergone positive selection in annelids from sulfide-free environments. We assumed that the high reactivity of cysteine residues became a disadvantage when H2S disappeared because free cysteines without their natural ligand had the capacity to interact with other blood components, disturb homeostasis, reduce fitness and thus could have been counterselected. To our knowledge, we pointed out for the first time a case of function loss driven by molecular adaptation rather than genetic drift. If constraint relaxation (H2S disappearance) led to the loss of the sulfide-binding function in modern annelids from sulfide-free environments, our work suggests that adaptation to sulfide-rich environments is a plesiomorphic feature, and thus that the annelid ancestor could have emerged in a sulfide-rich environment.