Sponge paleogenomics reveals an ancient role for carbonic anhydrase in skeletogenesis
Jackson, D.J.; Macis, L.; Reitner, J.; Degnan, B.M.; Wörheide, G. (2007). Sponge paleogenomics reveals an ancient role for carbonic anhydrase in skeletogenesis. Science (Wash.) 316(5833): 1893-1895. https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1141560
In: Science (Washington). American Association for the Advancement of Science: New York, N.Y. ISSN 0036-8075; e-ISSN 1095-9203, more
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| Authors | | Top |
- Jackson, D.J.
- Macis, L.
- Reitner, J.
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- Degnan, B.M.
- Wörheide, G.
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| Abstract |
Sponges (Porifera) were prolific reef-building organisms during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic. These ancient animals inherited components of the first multicellular skeletogenic toolkit from the last common ancestor of the Metazoa (LCAM). Using a paleogenomics approach, including gene and protein expression techniques and phylogenetic reconstruction, we show that a molecular component of this toolkit was the precursor to the -carbonic anhydrases, a gene family used by extant animals in a variety of fundamental physiological processes. We used the coralline demosponge Astrosclera willeyana, a 'living fossil' that has survived from the Mesozoic, to provide insight into the evolution of the ability to biocalcify, and show that the -CA family expanded from a single ancestral gene through several independent gene duplication events in sponges and eumetazoans. |
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