Structural molecular components of septate junctions in cnidarians point to the origin of epithelial junctions in eukaryotes

Septate junctions (SJs) insure barrier properties and control paracellular diffusion of solutes across epithelia in invertebrates. However, the origin and evolution of their molecular constituents in Metazoa have not been firmly established. Here, we investigated the genomes of early branching metaz...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular biology and evolution 2015-01, Vol.32 (1), p.44-62
Main Authors: Ganot, Philippe, Zoccola, Didier, Tambutté, Eric, Voolstra, Christian R, Aranda, Manuel, Allemand, Denis, Tambutté, Sylvie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Cnidaria - genetics
Cnidaria - metabolism
Computational Biology - methods
Coral reefs
Epithelial Cells - physiology
Eukaryota - cytology
Eukaryota - genetics
Eukaryota - metabolism
Eukaryotes
Evolution, Molecular
Evolutionary biology
Genome
Genomics
Intercellular Junctions - genetics
Intercellular Junctions - metabolism
Invertebrates
Marine biology
Models, Genetic
Molecular biology
Phylogeny
Solutes
Tight Junction Proteins - genetics
Tight Junction Proteins - metabolism
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Summary:Septate junctions (SJs) insure barrier properties and control paracellular diffusion of solutes across epithelia in invertebrates. However, the origin and evolution of their molecular constituents in Metazoa have not been firmly established. Here, we investigated the genomes of early branching metazoan representatives to reconstruct the phylogeny of the molecular components of SJs. Although Claudins and SJ cytoplasmic adaptor components appeared successively throughout metazoan evolution, the structural components of SJs arose at the time of Placozoa/Cnidaria/Bilateria radiation. We also show that in the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata, the structural SJ component Neurexin IV colocalizes with the cortical actin network at the apical border of the cells, at the place of SJs. We propose a model for SJ components in Cnidaria. Moreover, our study reveals an unanticipated diversity of SJ structural component variants in cnidarians. This diversity correlates with gene-specific expression in calcifying and noncalcifying tissues, suggesting specific paracellular pathways across the cell layers of these diploblastic animals.
ISSN:0737-4038
1537-1719
DOI:10.1093/molbev/msu265