The evolution of the four subunits of voltage-gated calcium channels : ancient roots, increasing complexity, and multiple losses
Date
2014-08-21Metadata
Show full item recordCitable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/6885As published
https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evu177DOI
10.1093/gbe/evu177Keyword
Voltage-gated calcium channel; Ion channel; Cnidaria; Nematostella vectensis; Evolution of nervous systemAbstract
The alpha subunits of voltage-gated calcium channels (Cavs) are large transmembrane proteins responsible for crucial physiological processes in excitable cells. They are assisted by three auxiliary subunits that can modulate their electrical behavior. Little is known about the evolution and roles of the various subunits of Cavs in nonbilaterian animals and in nonanimal lineages. For this reason, we mapped the phyletic distribution of the four channel subunits and reconstructed their phylogeny. Although alpha subunits have deep evolutionary roots as ancient as the split between plants and opistokonths, beta subunits appeared in the last common ancestor of animals and their close-relatives choanoflagellates, gamma subunits are a bilaterian novelty and alpha2/delta subunits appeared in the lineage of Placozoa, Cnidaria, and Bilateria. We note that gene losses were extremely common in the evolution of Cavs, with noticeable losses in multiple clades of subfamilies and also of whole Cav families. As in vertebrates, but not protostomes, Cav channel genes duplicated in Cnidaria. We characterized by in situ hybridization the tissue distribution of alpha subunits in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, a nonbilaterian animal possessing all three Cav subfamilies common to Bilateria. We find that some of the alpha subunit subtypes exhibit distinct spatiotemporal expression patterns. Further, all six sea anemone alpha subunit subtypes are conserved in stony corals, which separated from anemones 500 MA. This unexpected conservation together with the expression patterns strongly supports the notion that these subtypes carry unique functional roles.
Description
© The Author(s), 2014. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Genome Biology and Evolution 6 (2014): 2210-2217, doi:10.1093/gbe/evu177.
Suggested Citation
Genome Biology and Evolution 6 (2014): 2210-2217The following license files are associated with this item:
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Voltage-gated calcium channel subunits from platyhelminths : potential role in praziquantel action
Jeziorski, Michael C.; Greenberg, Robert M. (2006-02-07)Voltage-gated calcium (Ca2+) channels provide the pathway for Ca2+ influxes that underlie Ca2+-dependent responses in muscles, nerves, and other excitable cells. They are also targets of a wide variety of drugs and toxins. ... -
Gene duplications and evolution of vertebrate voltage-gated sodium channels
Novak, Alicia E.; Jost, Manda C.; Lu, Ying; Taylor, Alison D.; Zakon, Harold H.; Ribera, Angeles B. (2006-03-01)Voltage-gated sodium channels underlie action potential generation in excitable tissue. To establish the evolutionary mechanisms that shaped the vertebrate sodium channel a-subunit (SCNA) gene family and their encoded ... -
Adaptive evolution of voltage-gated sodium channels : the first 800 million years
Zakon, Harold H. (2012-04)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 ...