-
Journal of Proteomics Aug 2021In this compilation we collect information about the main protein components in hemolymph and stress the continued interest in their study. The reasons for such an... (Review)
Review
In this compilation we collect information about the main protein components in hemolymph and stress the continued interest in their study. The reasons for such an attention span several areas of biological, veterinarian and medical applications: from the notions for better dealing with the species - belonging to phylum Arthropoda, subphylum Crustacea, and to phylum Mollusca - of economic interest, to the development of 'marine drugs' from the peptides that, in invertebrates, act as antimicrobial, antifungal, antiprotozoal, and/or antiviral agents. Overall, the topic most often on focus is that of innate immunity operated by classes of pattern-recognition proteins. SIGNIFICANCE: The immune response in invertebrates relies on innate rather than on adaptive/acquired effectors. At a difference from the soluble and membrane-bound immunoglobulins and receptors in vertebrates, the antimicrobial, antifungal, antiprotozoal and/or antiviral agents in invertebrates interact with non-self material by targeting some common (rather than some highly specific) structural motifs. Developing this paradigm into (semi) synthetic pharmaceuticals, possibly optimized through the modeling opportunities offered by computational biochemistry, is one of the lessons today's science may learn from the study of marine invertebrates, and specifically of the proteins and peptides in their hemolymph.
Topics: Animals; Aquatic Organisms; Arthropods; Hemolymph; Invertebrates; Mollusca
PubMed: 34091091
DOI: 10.1016/j.jprot.2021.104294 -
Genome Biology Jan 2020Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a...
BACKGROUND
Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Dissection of the genomic record of sequence change enables broad questions regarding genome evolution to be addressed, even across hyper-diverse taxa within arthropods.
RESULTS
Using 76 whole genome sequences representing 21 orders spanning more than 500 million years of arthropod evolution, we document changes in gene and protein domain content and provide temporal and phylogenetic context for interpreting these innovations. We identify many novel gene families that arose early in the evolution of arthropods and during the diversification of insects into modern orders. We reveal unexpected variation in patterns of DNA methylation across arthropods and examples of gene family and protein domain evolution coincident with the appearance of notable phenotypic and physiological adaptations such as flight, metamorphosis, sociality, and chemoperception.
CONCLUSIONS
These analyses demonstrate how large-scale comparative genomics can provide broad new insights into the genotype to phenotype map and generate testable hypotheses about the evolution of animal diversity.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; DNA Methylation; Evolution, Molecular; Genetic Speciation; Genetic Variation; Phylogeny
PubMed: 31969194
DOI: 10.1186/s13059-019-1925-7 -
The International Journal of... 2003Understanding the evolutionary origins of segmented body plans in the metazoa has been a long-standing fascination for scientists. Competing hypotheses explaining the... (Review)
Review
Understanding the evolutionary origins of segmented body plans in the metazoa has been a long-standing fascination for scientists. Competing hypotheses explaining the presence of distinct segmented taxa range from the suggestion that all segmentation in the metazoa is homologous to the proposal that segmentation arose independently many times, even within an individual clade or species. A major new source of information regarding the extent of homology vs. homoplasy of segmentation in recent years has been an examination of the extent to which molecular mechanisms underlying the segmentation process are conserved, the rationale being that a shared history will be apparent by the presence of common molecular components of a developmental program that give rise to a segmented body plan. There has been substantial progress recently in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the segmentation process in many groups, specifically within the three overtly segmented phyla: Annelida, Arthropoda and Chordata. This review will discuss what we currently know about the segmentation process in each group and how our understanding of the development of segmented structures in distinct taxa have influenced the hypotheses explaining the presence of a segmented body plan in the metazoa.
Topics: Animals; Annelida; Arthropods; Body Patterning; Evolution, Molecular; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Genetic Variation; Invertebrates; Phylogeny; Somites; Vertebrates
PubMed: 14756334
DOI: No ID Found -
Biological Reviews of the Cambridge... Oct 2022The rise of arthropods is a decisive event in the history of life. Likely the first animals to have established themselves on land and in the air, arthropods have...
The rise of arthropods is a decisive event in the history of life. Likely the first animals to have established themselves on land and in the air, arthropods have pervaded nearly all ecosystems and have become pillars of the planet's ecological networks. Forerunners of this saga, exceptionally well-preserved Palaeozoic fossils recently discovered or re-discovered using new approaches and techniques have elucidated the precocious appearance of extant lineages at the onset of the Cambrian explosion, and pointed to the critical role of the plankton and hard integuments in early arthropod diversification. The notion put forward at the beginning of the century that the acquisition of extant arthropod characters was stepwise and represented by the majority of Cambrian fossil taxa is being rewritten. Although some key traits leading to Euarthropoda are indeed well documented along a diversified phylogenetic stem, this stem led to several speciose and ecologically diverse radiations leaving descendants late into the Palaeozoic, and a large part, if not all of the Cambrian euarthropods can now be placed on either of the two extant lineages: Mandibulata and Chelicerata. These new observations and discoveries have altered our view on the nature and timing of the Cambrian explosion and clarified diagnostic characters at the origin of extant arthropods, but also raised new questions, especially with respect to cephalic plasticity. There is now strong evidence that early arthropods shared a homologous frontalmost appendage, coined here the cheira, which likely evolved into antennules and chelicerae, but other aspects, such as brain and labrum evolution, are still subject to active debate. The early evolution of panarthropods was generally driven by increased mastication and predation efficiency and sophistication, but a wealth of recent studies have also highlighted the prevalent role of suspension-feeding, for which early panarthropods developed their own adaptive feedback through both specialized appendages and the diversification of small, morphologically differentiated larvae. In a context of general integumental differentiation and hardening across Cambrian metazoans, arthrodization of body and limbs notably prompted two diverging strategies of basipod differentiation, which arguably became founding criteria in the divergence of total-groups Mandibulata and Chelicerata. The kinship of trilobites and their relatives remains a source of disagreement, but a recent topological solution, termed the 'deep split', could embed Artiopoda as sister taxa to chelicerates and constitute definitive support for Arachnomorpha. Although Cambrian fossils have been critical to all these findings, data of exceptional quality have also been accumulating from other Palaeozoic Konservat-Lagerstätten, and a better integration of this information promises a much more complete and elaborate picture of early arthropod evolution in the near future. From the broader perspective of a total-evidence approach to the understanding of life's history, and despite persisting systematic debates and new interpretative challenges, various advances based on palaeontological evidence open the prospect of finally using the full potential of the most diverse animal phylum to investigate macroevolutionary patterns and processes.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Biological Evolution; Ecosystem; Fossils; Phylogeny
PubMed: 35475316
DOI: 10.1111/brv.12864 -
Peptides Mar 2013In mammalian pancreatic cells, the pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor (PSTI) belonging to the Kazal-family prevents the premature activation of digestive enzymes and...
In mammalian pancreatic cells, the pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor (PSTI) belonging to the Kazal-family prevents the premature activation of digestive enzymes and thus plays an important role in a protective mechanism against tissue destruction by autophagy. Although a similar protective mechanism exists in Arthropoda, the distribution of these inhibitors in this phylum remains obscure. A comprehensive in silico search of nucleotide databases, revealed the presence of members of the Kazal-family in the four major subphyla of the Arthropoda. Especially in the Hexapoda and the Crustacea these inhibitors are widespread, while in the Chelicerata and Myriapoda only a few Kazal-like protease inhibitors were found. A sequence alignment of inhibitors retrieved in the digestive system of insects revealed a conservation of the PSTI characteristics and strong resemblance to vertebrate PSTI. A phylogenetic analysis of these inhibitors showed that they generally cluster according to their order. The results of this data mining study provide new evidence for the existence of an ancient protective mechanism in metazoan digestive systems. Kazal-like inhibitors, which play an important protective role in the pancreas of vertebrates, also seem to be present in Arthropoda.
Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Arthropods; Insect Proteins; Molecular Sequence Data; Phylogeny; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Trypsin Inhibitor, Kazal Pancreatic
PubMed: 23159789
DOI: 10.1016/j.peptides.2012.10.015 -
Microscopy Research and Technique Feb 2022Visualization and representation are two processes at the core of basic biodiversity studies. Visualization involves the examination, sorting, and evaluation of...
Extended depth of focus ultraviolet imaging compared with laser scanning confocal microscopy for the study of micro-Arthropoda surface texture, with the description of a new species of Brachypodopsis (Acari: Hydrachnidia).
Visualization and representation are two processes at the core of basic biodiversity studies. Visualization involves the examination, sorting, and evaluation of similarities and differences among specimens by specialists who then assign them to the same or different species. It is a cognitive process. Representing involves transmitting the knowledge obtained in the first step to others, usually specialists of the group under study, generally through written descriptions aided by representative drawings and/or images. In this work, I describe a new species of water mite, Brachypodopsis guillermoi n. sp. (Acari, Hydrachnidia), from the island of Coiba off the Pacific coast of Panama, using both laser scanning confocal microscopy and extended depth of focus microscopy with visible (wavelength: 400-700 nm) and ultraviolet (wavelength: 365 nm) light. A comparison of the surface texture representation obtained from these imaging methods suggests that extended depth of focus ultraviolet microscopy can be a cost-effective alternative to laser scanning confocal microscopy for the description of exoskeletal features of micro-arthropods.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Biodiversity; Microscopy, Confocal; Mites; Water
PubMed: 34494682
DOI: 10.1002/jemt.23929 -
Current Opinion in Genetics &... Aug 2016Research on arthropod genetics and development has added much to our understanding of animal evolution. While this work has mainly focused on insects, a growing body of... (Review)
Review
Research on arthropod genetics and development has added much to our understanding of animal evolution. While this work has mainly focused on insects, a growing body of research on the less studied myriapods and chelicerates is providing important new insights into arthropod genomics and development. Multiple chelicerate lineages have a high incidence of gene duplication, which is suggestive of large-scale and even whole genome duplications. Furthermore, the duplication and divergence of genes is associated with the evolution of appendage morphology and other phenotypes in chelicerates and myriapods. Recent studies of these arthropods have also helped to understand the evolution and development of segmented bodies. Further research on chelicerate and myriapod models as well as species from other orders of these subphyla has great potential to expand our understanding of the evolution of animal genomes and development.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Evolution, Molecular; Gene Duplication; Genome; Phylogeny
PubMed: 27362947
DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2016.06.002 -
Peptides Jul 2009FGLamide allatostatins are invertebrate neuropeptides which inhibit juvenile hormone biosynthesis in Dictyoptera and related orders and also show myomodulatory activity....
FGLamide allatostatins are invertebrate neuropeptides which inhibit juvenile hormone biosynthesis in Dictyoptera and related orders and also show myomodulatory activity. The FGLamide allatostatin (AST) gene structure in Dictyoptera is intronless within the ORF, whereas in 9 species of Diptera, the FGLamide AST ORF has one intron. To investigate the evolutionary history of AST intron structure, (intron early versus intron late hypothesis), all available Arthropoda FGLamide AST gene sequences were examined from genome databases with reference to intron presence and position/phase. Three types of FGLamide AST ORF organization were found: intronless in I. scapularis and P. humanus corporis; one intron in D. pulex, A. pisum, A. mellifera and five Drosophila sp.; two introns in N. vitripennis, B. mori strains, A. aegypti, A. gambiae and C. quinquefasciatus. The literature suggests that for the majority of genes examined, most introns exist between codons (phase 0) which may reflect an ancient function of introns to separate protein modules. 60% of the FGLamide AST ORFs introns were between the first and second base within a codon (phase 1), 28% were between the second and third nucleotides within a codon (phase two) and 12% were phase 0. As would be required for correct intron splicing consensus sequence, 84% of introns were in codons starting with guanine. The positioning of introns was a maximum of 9 codons from a dibasic cleavage site. Our results suggest that the introns in the analyzed species support the intron late model.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Introns; Neuropeptides; Open Reading Frames; Phylogeny
PubMed: 19551917
DOI: 10.1016/j.peptides.2009.04.001 -
Arthropod Structure & Development Jan 2011
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Periodicals as Topic
PubMed: 21081179
DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2010.11.001 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Apr 2000The expression patterns of developmental genes provide new markers that address the homology of body parts and provide clues as to how body plans have evolved. Such... (Review)
Review
The expression patterns of developmental genes provide new markers that address the homology of body parts and provide clues as to how body plans have evolved. Such markers support the idea that insect wings evolved from limbs but refute the idea that insect and crustacean jaws are fundamentally different in structure. They also confirm that arthropod tagmosis reflects underlying patterns of Hox gene regulation but they do not yet resolve to what extent Hox expression domains may serve to define segment homologies.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Biological Evolution; Body Patterning; Fossils; Genes, Homeobox; Genetic Variation
PubMed: 10781039
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.97.9.4438