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Halloween genes in panarthropods and the evolution of the early moulting pathway in Ecdysozoa

Moulting is a characteristic feature of Ecdysozoa—the clade of moulting animals that includes the hyperdiverse arthropods and less speciose groups, such as onychophorans, tardigrades and nematodes. Moulting has been best analysed in arthropods, specifically in insects and crustaceans, in which a com...

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Autores principales: Schumann, Isabell, Kenny, Nathan, Hui, Jerome, Hering, Lars, Mayer, Georg
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6170570/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30839709
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180888
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author Schumann, Isabell
Kenny, Nathan
Hui, Jerome
Hering, Lars
Mayer, Georg
author_facet Schumann, Isabell
Kenny, Nathan
Hui, Jerome
Hering, Lars
Mayer, Georg
author_sort Schumann, Isabell
collection PubMed
description Moulting is a characteristic feature of Ecdysozoa—the clade of moulting animals that includes the hyperdiverse arthropods and less speciose groups, such as onychophorans, tardigrades and nematodes. Moulting has been best analysed in arthropods, specifically in insects and crustaceans, in which a complex neuroendocrine system acts at the genomic level and initiates the transcription of genes responsible for moulting. The key moulting hormones, ecdysone and 20-hydroxyecdysone, are subsequently synthesized from cholesterol ingested with food. Their biosynthesis is regulated by the Rieske-domain protein Neverland and cytochrome P450 enzymes encoded by the so-called ‘Halloween’ genes. Ecdysone is then released into the haemolymph and modified into 20-hydroxyecdysone, which binds to the nuclear receptor EcR/USP and initiates transcription of the Early genes. As little is known about the moulting pathway of other ecdysozoans, we examined the occurrence of genes involved in ecdysteroid biosynthesis and the early moulting cascade across ecdysozoan subgroups. Genomic and transcriptomic searches revealed no Halloween genes in cycloneuralians, whereas only shadow (CYP315A1) is present in onychophorans and tardigrades, suggesting that the Halloween genes evolved stepwise in panarthropods. These findings imply that the genes which were responsible for the ecdysteroid biosynthesis in the last common ancestor of Ecdysozoa are currently unknown.
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spelling pubmed-61705702018-10-18 Halloween genes in panarthropods and the evolution of the early moulting pathway in Ecdysozoa Schumann, Isabell Kenny, Nathan Hui, Jerome Hering, Lars Mayer, Georg R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) Moulting is a characteristic feature of Ecdysozoa—the clade of moulting animals that includes the hyperdiverse arthropods and less speciose groups, such as onychophorans, tardigrades and nematodes. Moulting has been best analysed in arthropods, specifically in insects and crustaceans, in which a complex neuroendocrine system acts at the genomic level and initiates the transcription of genes responsible for moulting. The key moulting hormones, ecdysone and 20-hydroxyecdysone, are subsequently synthesized from cholesterol ingested with food. Their biosynthesis is regulated by the Rieske-domain protein Neverland and cytochrome P450 enzymes encoded by the so-called ‘Halloween’ genes. Ecdysone is then released into the haemolymph and modified into 20-hydroxyecdysone, which binds to the nuclear receptor EcR/USP and initiates transcription of the Early genes. As little is known about the moulting pathway of other ecdysozoans, we examined the occurrence of genes involved in ecdysteroid biosynthesis and the early moulting cascade across ecdysozoan subgroups. Genomic and transcriptomic searches revealed no Halloween genes in cycloneuralians, whereas only shadow (CYP315A1) is present in onychophorans and tardigrades, suggesting that the Halloween genes evolved stepwise in panarthropods. These findings imply that the genes which were responsible for the ecdysteroid biosynthesis in the last common ancestor of Ecdysozoa are currently unknown. The Royal Society 2018-09-12 /pmc/articles/PMC6170570/ /pubmed/30839709 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180888 Text en © 2018 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Biology (Whole Organism)
Schumann, Isabell
Kenny, Nathan
Hui, Jerome
Hering, Lars
Mayer, Georg
Halloween genes in panarthropods and the evolution of the early moulting pathway in Ecdysozoa
title Halloween genes in panarthropods and the evolution of the early moulting pathway in Ecdysozoa
title_full Halloween genes in panarthropods and the evolution of the early moulting pathway in Ecdysozoa
title_fullStr Halloween genes in panarthropods and the evolution of the early moulting pathway in Ecdysozoa
title_full_unstemmed Halloween genes in panarthropods and the evolution of the early moulting pathway in Ecdysozoa
title_short Halloween genes in panarthropods and the evolution of the early moulting pathway in Ecdysozoa
title_sort halloween genes in panarthropods and the evolution of the early moulting pathway in ecdysozoa
topic Biology (Whole Organism)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6170570/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30839709
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180888
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