Cryptochrome in sponges: a key molecule linking photoreception with phototransduction.
Sponges (phylum: Porifera) react to external light or mechanical signals with contractile or metabolic reactions and are devoid of any nervous or muscular system. Furthermore, elements of a photoreception/phototransduction system exist in those animals. Recently, a cryptochrome-based photoreceptor system has been discovered in the demosponge. The assumption that in sponges the siliceous skeleton acts as a substitution for the lack of a nervous system and allows light signals to be transmitted through its glass fiber network is supported by the findings that the first spicules are efficient light waveguides and the second sponges have the enzymatic machinery for the generation of light. Now, we have identified/cloned in Suberites domuncula two additional potential molecules of the sponge cryptochrome photoreception system, the guanine nucleotide-binding protein β subunit, related to β-transducin, and the nitric oxide synthase (NOS)-interacting protein. Cryptochrome and NOSIP are light-inducible genes. The studies show that the NOS inhibitor L-NMMA impairs both morphogenesis and motility of the cells. Finally, we report that the function of primmorphs to produce reactive nitrogen species can be abolished by a NOS inhibitor. We propose that the sponge cryptochrome-based photoreception system, through which photon signals are converted into radicals, is coupled to the NOS apparatus.
ERC Advanced Grant Research Group at the Institute for Physiological Chemistry, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany (WEGM,HCS,JSM,VAG,MK,RS,XW).
Werner E G
WE
Müller
Heinz C
HC
Schröder
Julia S
JS
Markl
Vlad A
VA
Grebenjuk
Michael
M
Korzhev
Renate
R
Steffen
Xiaohong
X
Wang
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002465:Cell Movement; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D056931:Cryptochromes / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D020962:Heterotrimeric GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D055537:Light Signal Transduction; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D047233:Suberites / Q000502:physiology*; D015293:Transducin / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D002352:Carrier Proteins; D056931:Cryptochromes; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D020962:Heterotrimeric GTP-Binding Proteins; D015293:Transducin
Suberites domuncula; beta-transducin; cryptochrome; nitric oxide synthase-interacting protein; photoreception; phototransduction; sponges