Globins in the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii shed new light on hemoglobin evolution in bilaterians.

ABSTRACT:

Background

How vascular systems and their respiratory pigments evolved is still debated. While many animals present a vascular system, hemoglobin exists as a blood pigment only in a few groups (vertebrates, annelids, a few arthropod and mollusk species). Hemoglobins are formed of globin sub-units, belonging to multigene families, in various multimeric assemblages. It was so far unclear whether hemoglobin families from different bilaterian groups had a common origin.

Results

To unravel globin evolution in bilaterians, we studied the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii, a species with a slow evolving genome. Platynereis exhibits a closed vascular system filled with extracellular hemoglobin. Platynereis genome and transcriptomes reveal a family of 19 globins, nine of which are

SUBMITTER: Song S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7771090 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature