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Lau ES, Goodheart JA, Anderson NT, Liu VL, Mukherjee A, Oakley TH. Similar enzymatic functions in distinct bioluminescence systems: evolutionary recruitment of sulfotransferases in ostracod light organs. Biol Lett 2024; 20:20230585. [PMID: 38746983 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2023.0585] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Genes from ancient families are sometimes involved in the convergent evolutionary origins of similar traits, even across vast phylogenetic distances. Sulfotransferases are an ancient family of enzymes that transfer sulfate from a donor to a wide variety of substrates, including probable roles in some bioluminescence systems. Here, we demonstrate multiple sulfotransferases, highly expressed in light organs of the bioluminescent ostracod Vargula tsujii, transfer sulfate in vitro to the luciferin substrate, vargulin. We find luciferin sulfotransferases (LSTs) of ostracods are not orthologous to known LSTs of fireflies or sea pansies; animals with distinct and convergently evolved bioluminescence systems compared to ostracods. Therefore, distantly related sulfotransferases were independently recruited at least three times, leading to parallel evolution of luciferin metabolism in three highly diverged organisms. Reuse of homologous genes is surprising in these bioluminescence systems because the other components, including luciferins and luciferases, are completely distinct. Whether convergently evolved traits incorporate ancient genes with similar functions or instead use distinct, often newer, genes may be constrained by how many genetic solutions exist for a particular function. When fewer solutions exist, as in genetic sulfation of small molecules, evolution may be more constrained to use the same genes time and again.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily S Lau
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Jessica A Goodheart
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
- Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10025, USA
| | - Nolan T Anderson
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Vannie L Liu
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Arnab Mukherjee
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
- Department of Biological Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
- Neuroscience Research Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Todd H Oakley
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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Dunuweera AN, Dunuweera SP, Ranganathan K. A Comprehensive Exploration of Bioluminescence Systems, Mechanisms, and Advanced Assays for Versatile Applications. Biochem Res Int 2024; 2024:8273237. [PMID: 38347947 PMCID: PMC10861286 DOI: 10.1155/2024/8273237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2023] [Revised: 10/10/2023] [Accepted: 01/21/2024] [Indexed: 02/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Bioluminescence has been a fascinating natural phenomenon of light emission from living creatures. It happens when the enzyme luciferase facilitates the oxidation of luciferin, resulting in the creation of an excited-state species that emits light. Although there are many bioluminescent systems, few have been identified. D-luciferin-dependent systems, coelenterazine-dependent systems, Cypridina luciferin-based systems, tetrapyrrole-based luciferins, bacterial bioluminescent systems, and fungal bioluminescent systems are natural bioluminescent systems. Since different bioluminescence systems, such as various combinations of luciferin-luciferase pair reactions, have different light emission wavelengths, they benefit industrial applications such as drug discovery, protein-protein interactions, in vivo imaging in small animals, and controlling neurons. Due to the expression of luciferase and easy permeation of luciferin into most cells and tissues, bioluminescence assays are applied nowadays with modern technologies in most cell and tissue types. It is a versatile technique in a variety of biomedical research. Furthermore, there are some investigated blue-sky research projects, such as bioluminescent plants and lamps. This review article is mainly based on the theory of diverse bioluminescence systems and their past, present, and future applications.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - K. Ranganathan
- Department of Botany, University of Jaffna, Jaffna 40000, Sri Lanka
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Ellis EA, Goodheart JA, Hensley NM, González VL, Reda NJ, Rivers TJ, Morin JG, Torres E, Gerrish GA, Oakley TH. Sexual Signals Persist over Deep Time: Ancient Co-option of Bioluminescence for Courtship Displays in Cypridinid Ostracods. Syst Biol 2023; 72:264-274. [PMID: 35984328 PMCID: PMC10448971 DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syac057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2021] [Revised: 07/22/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Although the diversity, beauty, and intricacy of sexually selected courtship displays command the attention of evolutionists, the longevity of these traits in deep time is poorly understood. Population-based theory suggests sexual selection could either lower or raise extinction risk, resulting in high or low persistence of lineages with sexually selected traits. Furthermore, empirical studies that directly estimate the longevity of sexually selected traits are uncommon. Sexually selected signals-including bioluminescent courtship-originated multiple times during evolution, allowing the empirical study of their longevity after careful phylogenetic and divergence time analyses. Here, we estimate the first transcriptome-based molecular phylogeny and divergence times of Cypridinidae. We report extreme longevity of bioluminescent courtship, a trait important in mate choice and probably under sexual selection. Our relaxed-clock estimates of divergence times coupled with stochastic character mapping show luminous courtship evolved only once in Cypridinidae-in a Sub-Tribe, we name Luxorina-at least 151 millions of years ago from cypridinid ancestors that used bioluminescence only in antipredator displays, defining a Tribe we name Luminini. This time-calibrated molecular phylogeny of cypridinids will serve as a foundation for integrative and comparative studies on the biochemistry, molecular evolution, courtship, diversification, and ecology of cypridinid bioluminescence. The persistence of luminous courtship for hundreds of millions of years suggests that sexual selection did not cause a rapid loss of associated traits, and that rates of speciation within the group exceeded extinction risk, which may contribute to the persistence of a diverse clade of signaling species. [Ancestral state reconstruction; Biodiversity; co-option; divergence time estimates; macroevolution; Ostracoda; phylogenomics; sexual selection.].
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily A Ellis
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of
California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Jessica A Goodheart
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of
California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
- Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92037,
USA
| | - Nicholai M Hensley
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of
California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
| | - Vanessa L González
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Smithsonian Institution, National
Museum of Natural History, 10th and Constitution NW, Washington, DC
20560-0105, USA
| | - Nicholas J Reda
- Biology Department, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, La
Crosse, WI 54601, USA
| | - Trevor J Rivers
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
| | - James G Morin
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell
University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
| | - Elizabeth Torres
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State University Los
Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
| | - Gretchen A Gerrish
- Biology Department, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, La
Crosse, WI 54601, USA
- Trout Lake Station, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin –
Madison, Boulder Junction, WI 54512, USA
| | - Todd H Oakley
- Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of
California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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Bioluminescence and Photoreception in Unicellular Organisms: Light-Signalling in a Bio-Communication Perspective. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms222111311. [PMID: 34768741 PMCID: PMC8582858 DOI: 10.3390/ijms222111311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2021] [Revised: 10/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Bioluminescence, the emission of light catalysed by luciferases, has evolved in many taxa from bacteria to vertebrates and is predominant in the marine environment. It is now well established that in animals possessing a nervous system capable of integrating light stimuli, bioluminescence triggers various behavioural responses and plays a role in intra- or interspecific visual communication. The function of light emission in unicellular organisms is less clear and it is currently thought that it has evolved in an ecological framework, to be perceived by visual animals. For example, while it is thought that bioluminescence allows bacteria to be ingested by zooplankton or fish, providing them with favourable conditions for growth and dispersal, the luminous flashes emitted by dinoflagellates may have evolved as an anti-predation system against copepods. In this short review, we re-examine this paradigm in light of recent findings in microorganism photoreception, signal integration and complex behaviours. Numerous studies show that on the one hand, bacteria and protists, whether autotrophs or heterotrophs, possess a variety of photoreceptors capable of perceiving and integrating light stimuli of different wavelengths. Single-cell light-perception produces responses ranging from phototaxis to more complex behaviours. On the other hand, there is growing evidence that unicellular prokaryotes and eukaryotes can perform complex tasks ranging from habituation and decision-making to associative learning, despite lacking a nervous system. Here, we focus our analysis on two taxa, bacteria and dinoflagellates, whose bioluminescence is well studied. We propose the hypothesis that similar to visual animals, the interplay between light-emission and reception could play multiple roles in intra- and interspecific communication and participate in complex behaviour in the unicellular world.
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Ogoh K, Futahashi R, Ohmiya Y. Intraspecific nucleotide polymorphisms in seven complete sequences of mitochondrial DNA of the luminous ostracod, Vargula hilgendorfii (Crustacea, Ostracoda). GENE REPORTS 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.genrep.2021.101074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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