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    Adaptive evolution of voltage-gated sodium channels : the first 800 million years

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    Sackler_symposium_Zakon copy.pdf (960.5Kb)
    Date
    2012-04
    Author
    Zakon, Harold H.  Concept link
    Metadata
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    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5250
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201884109
    Abstract
    Voltage-gated Na+-permeable (Nav) channels form the basis for electrical excitability in animals. Nav channels evolved from Ca2+ channels and were present in the common ancestor of choanoflagellates and animals although this channel was likely permeable to both Na+ and Ca2+. Thus, like many other neuronal channels and receptors, Nav channels predated neurons. Invertebrates possess two Nav channels (Nav1, Nav2), whereas vertebrate Nav channels are of the Nav1 family. Approximately 500 MYA in early chordates Nav channels evolved a motif that allowed them to cluster at axon initial segments, 50MY later with the evolution of myelin, Nav channels “capitalized” on this property and clustered at nodes of Ranvier. The enhancement of conduction velocity along with the evolution of jaws likely made early gnathostomes fierce predators and the dominant vertebrates in the ocean. Later in vertebrate evolution, the Nav channel gene family expanded in parallel in tetrapods and teleosts (~9-10 genes in amniotes, 8 in teleosts). This expansion occurred during or after the late Devonian extinction when teleosts and tetrapods each diversified in their respective habitats and coincided with an increase in the number of telencephalic nuclei in both groups. The expansion of Nav channels may have allowed for more sophisticated neural computation and tailoring of Nav channel kinetics with potassium channel kinetics to enhance energy savings. Nav channels show adaptive sequence evolution for increasing diversity in communication signals (electric fish), in protection against lethal Nav channel toxins (snakes, newts, pufferfish, insects), and in specialized habitats (naked mole rats).
    Description
    Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of National Academy of Sciences for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109 (2012): 10619-10625, doi:10.1073/pnas.1201884109.
    Collections
    • Josephine Bay Paul Center in Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution
    Suggested Citation
    Preprint: Zakon, Harold H., "Adaptive evolution of voltage-gated sodium channels : the first 800 million years", 2012-04, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201884109, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5250
     
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