Divergence time estimates for the hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF1α) reveal an ancient emergence of animals in low-oxygen environments

Autor(es)

Belato, Flavia A. ; Mello, Beatriz ; Coates, Christopher J. ; Halanych, Kenneth M. ; Brown, Federico D. ; Morandini, Andre C. ; Leme, Juliana de Moraes ; Trindade, Ricardo I. F. ; Costa-Paiva, Elisa Maria

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Geobiology; v. N/A, p. 14-pg., 2023-09-26.

Resumo

Unveiling the tempo and mode of animal evolution is necessary to understand the links between environmental changes and biological innovation. Although the earliest unambiguous metazoan fossils date to the late Ediacaran period, molecular clock estimates agree that the last common ancestor (LCA) of all extant animals emerged similar to 850 Ma, in the Tonian period, before the oldest evidence for widespread ocean oxygenation at similar to 635-560 Ma in the Ediacaran period. Metazoans are aerobic organisms, that is, they are dependent on oxygen to survive. In low-oxygen conditions, most animals have an evolutionarily conserved pathway for maintaining oxygen homeostasis that triggers physiological changes in gene expression via the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIFa). However, here we confirm the absence of the characteristic HIFa protein domain responsible for the oxygen sensing of HIFa in sponges and ctenophores, indicating the LCA of metazoans lacked the functional protein domain as well, and so could have maintained their transcription levels unaltered under the very low-oxygen concentrations of their environments. Using Bayesian relaxed molecular clock dating, we inferred that the ancestral gene lineage responsible for HIFa arose in the Mesoproterozoic Era, similar to 1273 Ma (Credibility Interval 957-1621 Ma), consistent with the idea that important genetic machinery associated with animals evolved much earlier than the LCA of animals. Our data suggest at least two duplication events in the evolutionary history of HIFa, which generated three vertebrate paralogs, products of the two successive whole-genome duplications that occurred in the vertebrate LCA. Overall, our results support the hypothesis of a pre-Tonian emergence of metazoans under low-oxygen conditions, and an increase in oxygen response elements during animal evolution. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 18/20268-1 - Fisiologia de Análogos Modernos da fauna Ediacarana e Cambriana
• Beneficiário: Elisa Maria Costa e Silva de Paiva
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 21/14115-0 - Respostas fisiológicas e moleculares de metazoários modernos submetidos às condições oceânicas do Neoproterozóico
• Beneficiário: Flávia Ariany Belato Costa
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Exterior - Estágio de Pesquisa - Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 19/18051-7 - Respostas fisiológicas, morfológicas e do desenvolvimento de metazoários modernos submetidos às condições oceânicas do Neoproterozóico
• Beneficiário: Flávia Ariany Belato Costa
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 16/06114-6 - O Sistema Terra e a evolução da vida durante o Neoproterozoico
• Beneficiário: Ricardo Ivan Ferreira da Trindade
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Temático
• Processo FAPESP: 15/50164-5 - Células-tronco, brotação e a evolução da colonialidade em ascídias
• Beneficiário: Federico David Brown Almeida
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Jovens Pesquisadores