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. 2019 Nov 1;11(11):3068-3081.
doi: 10.1093/gbe/evz199.

New Non-Bilaterian Transcriptomes Provide Novel Insights into the Evolution of Coral Skeletomes

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New Non-Bilaterian Transcriptomes Provide Novel Insights into the Evolution of Coral Skeletomes

Nicola Conci et al. Genome Biol Evol. .

Abstract

A general trend observed in animal skeletomes-the proteins occluded in animal skeletons-is the copresence of taxonomically widespread and lineage-specific proteins that actively regulate the biomineralization process. Among cnidarians, the skeletomes of scleractinian corals have been shown to follow this trend. However, distributions and phylogenetic analyses of biomineralization-related genes are often based on only a few species, with other anthozoan calcifiers such as octocorals (soft corals), not being fully considered. We de novo assembled the transcriptomes of four soft-coral species characterized by different calcification strategies (aragonite skeleton vs. calcitic sclerites) and data-mined published nonbilaterian transcriptome resources to construct a taxonomically comprehensive sequence database to map the distribution of scleractinian and octocoral skeletome components. Cnidaria shared no skeletome proteins with Placozoa or Ctenophora, but did share some skeletome proteins with Porifera, such as galaxin-related proteins. Within Scleractinia and Octocorallia, we expanded the distribution for several taxonomically restricted genes such as secreted acidic proteins, scleritin, and carbonic anhydrases, and propose an early, single biomineralization-recruitment event for galaxin sensu stricto. Additionally, we show that the enrichment of acidic residues within skeletogenic proteins did not occur at the Corallimorpharia-Scleractinia transition, but appears to be associated with protein secretion into the organic matrix. Finally, the distribution of octocoral calcification-related proteins appears independent of skeleton mineralogy (i.e., aragonite/calcite) with no differences in the proportion of shared skeletogenic proteins between scleractinians and aragonitic or calcitic octocorals. This points to skeletome homogeneity within but not between groups of calcifying cnidarians, although some proteins such as galaxins and SCRiP-3a could represent instances of commonality.

Keywords: Octocorallia; Scleractinia; biomineralization; coral calcification; galaxin; molecular evolution.

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Figures

<sc>Fig</sc>. 1.
Fig. 1.
—Pattern of presence of homologs (BLASTp, e-value <1e−09) of coral biomineralization-related protein across early branching metazoans. Lower x axis indicates number of species surveyed within a particular group. Asterisk: genomic data available for at least one species within the group. Protein categories “Extracellular matrix—Cell Adhesion,” “Enzymes,” “Uncharacterized Proteins,” and “Galaxins” based on Ramos-Silva et al. (2013). Taxa in capital and bold, phyla; taxa in bold, classes; normal text: subclasses or lower taxonomic levels; Hom, Homoscleromorpha; Cal, Calcarea; Ver, Verongimorpha; Ker, Keratosa; Het, Heteroscleromorpha; Dem, Demospongiae; Hex, Hexactinellida; Hyd, Hydrozoa; Sta, Staurozoa; Scy, Scyphozoa; Cub, Cubozoa; Oct, Octocorallia; Zoa, Zoantharia; Act, Actiniaria; Cer, Ceriantharia; Cor, Corallimorpharia; Scl, Scleractinia; Rob, Robusta (Scleractinia); Com, Complexa (Scleractinia).
<sc>Fig</sc>. 2.
Fig. 2.
—(a) Phylogenetic tree (ML, 500 bootstrap replicates) of scleractinian acidic proteins and putative homologs in other cnidarian groups. Best-fit model: WAG+F + G+I. Tree displayed in figure based on protein sequences aligned with MAFFT. MUSCLE alignment and tree available in supplementary figure 2, Supplementary Material online. Bold number: node supported (>50) also in MUSCLE phylogeny. Dot on node indicates full support (100% bootstrap, 1.0 posterior probability) in both phylogenies. Support for nodes with bootstrap <50 not shown regardless of posterior probability value. Skeletogenic clades (S) (highlighted in yellow) include acidic proteins found in coral skeletons (Drake et al. 2013; Ramos-Silva et al. 2013). NS (nonskeletogenic) clades: acidic proteins not extracted from coral skeletons. (b) Consensus sequences (60%) alignment for each clade. Alignment shows the position and distribution of acidic residues (aspartic and glutamic acid) highlighted in blue. Light gray: other conserved residues. Dark gray: nonconserved residues. Complete alignment available in the project repository. When corallimorph sequences were present in a clade, these were analyzed separately to highlight difference with scleractinian proteins Corallimorph consensus sequences IDs end in “.C”. NS2 clade was split into NS2.1 (includes Porites australiensis 3369, Porites lobata 21745, Favia sp. 24967, Platygyra carnosus 1685 and Pseudodiploria strigosa 22901) and NS2.2 (all other scleractinian sequences) because the position of NS2.1 was not congruent between phylogenies and was also retrieved as sister group to the rest of NS2 scleractinian proteins (supplementary fig. 2, Supplementary Material online). Top right corner: mean (± SE) content (%) of aspartic acid within acidic proteins. Average estimated on predicted complete sequences only.
<sc>Fig</sc>. 3.
Fig. 3.
—Phylogenetic analysis (ML; 500 bootstrap replicates) of metazoan galaxin-related proteins. Tree displayed in figure based on protein sequences aligned with MAFFT. MUSCLE alignment and tree available in supplementary material 3, Supplementary Material online. MUSCLE-based phylogeny in supplementary figure 3, Supplementary Material online. Bold number: node supported (>50) also in MUSCLE phylogeny. Dot on node indicates full support (100 bootstrap, 1.0 posterior probability) in both phylogenies. Support for nodes with bootstrap <50 not shown regardless of posterior probability value.
<sc>Fig</sc>. 4.
Fig. 4.
—Presence-absence analysis of type IV collagen and galaxin-related proteins within Porifera. For galaxin-related proteins, data are presented as percentage of species within group in which one significant match (BLASTp, e-value <1e−10) was detected. When present, collagen IV was found in all species considered for a particular taxon (supplementary material 1, Supplementary Material online). Phylogenetic relationships between sponge classes based on Simion et al. (2017). Phylogeny of Demospongiae based on Morrow and Cárdenas (2015). Heteroscl, Heteroscleromorpha; Verong, Verongimorpha.

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