Abstract:
Jellyfish and sea anemones fire single-use, venom-covered barbs to immobilize prey or predators. We previously showed that the anemone Nematostella vectensis uses a specialized voltage-gated calcium (Ca(V)) channel to trigger stinging in response to synergistic prey-derived chemicals and touch (Weir et al., 2020). Here, we use experiments and theory to find that stinging behavior is suited to distinct ecological niches. We find that the burrowing anemone Nematostella uses uniquely strong Ca(V) inactivation for precise control of predatory stinging. In contrast, the related anemone Exaiptasia diaphana inhabits exposed environments to support photosynthetic endosymbionts. Consistent with its niche, Exaiptasia indiscriminately stings for defense and expresses a Ca(V) splice variant that confers weak inactivation. Chimeric analyses reveal that Ca(V)beta subunit adaptations regulate inactivation, suggesting an evolutionary tuning mechanism for stinging behavior. These findings demonstrate how functional specialization of ion channel structure contributes to distinct organismal behavior.
Notes:
He, Lily S Qi, Yujia Allard, Corey A H Valencia-Montoya, Wendy A Krueger, Stephanie P Weir, Keiko Seminara, Agnese Bellono, Nicholas W eng R35 GM142697/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ R01 DC018789/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ R35GM142697/NH/NIH HHS/ 101002724 RIDING/ERC_/European Research Council/International R01DC018789/NH/NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. England 2023/10/31 Elife. 2023 Oct 31;12:RP88900. doi: 10.7554/eLife.88900.
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