title: Spectral diversity of fluorescent proteins from the anthozoan Corynactis californica.
abstract: Color morphs of the temperate, nonsymbiotic corallimorpharian Corynactis californica show variation in pigment pattern and coloring. We collected seven distinct color morphs of C. californica from subtidal locations in Monterey Bay, California, and found that tissue- and color-morph-specific expression of at least six different genes is responsible for this variation. Each morph contains at least three to four distinct genetic loci that code for these colors, and one morph contains at least five loci. These genes encode a subfamily of new GFP-like proteins, which fluoresce across the visible spectrum from green to red, while sharing between 75% to 89% pairwise amino-acid identity. Biophysical characterization reveals interesting spectral properties, including a bright yellow protein, an orange protein, and a red protein exhibiting a "fluorescent timer" phenotype. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the FP genes from this species evolved together but that diversification of anthozoan fluorescent proteins has taken place outside of phylogenetic constraints, especially within the Corallimorpharia. The discovery of more examples of fluorescent proteins in a non-bioluminescent, nonsymbiotic anthozoan highlights possibilities of adaptive ecological significance unrelated to light regulation for algal symbionts. The patterns and colors of fluorescent proteins in C. californica and similar species may hold meaning for organisms that possess the visual pigments to distinguish them.
authors.affiliation: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Rd, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA.
authors.forename: Christine E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Schnitzler
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Keenan
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: McCord
authors.forename: Artur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matysik
authors.forename: Lynne M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Christianson
authors.forename: Steven H D
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Haddock
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005453:Fluorescence; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D008164:Luminescent Proteins