The origin and distribution of the main oxygen sensing mechanism across metazoans.

ABSTRACT: Oxygen sensing mechanisms are essential for metazoans, their origin and evolution in the context of oxygen in Earth history are of interest. To trace the evolution of a main oxygen sensing mechanism among metazoans, the hypoxia induced factor, HIF, we investigated the phylogenetic distribution and phylogeny of 11 of its components across 566 eukaryote genomes. The HIF based oxygen sensing machinery in eukaryotes can be traced as far back as 800 million years (Ma) ago, likely to the last metazoan common ancestor (LMCA), and arose at a time when the atmospheric oxygen content corresponded roughly to the Pasteur point, or roughly 1% of present atmospheric level (PAL). By the time of the Cambrian explosion (541-485 Ma) as oxygen levels started to approach those of the modern atmosphere, the HI

SUBMITTER: Song B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9618697 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature