Project description:Vampire bats and snakes have taken thermosensation to the extreme by developing specialized systems for detecting infrared radiation. As such, these creatures provide a window into the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying evolutionary tuning of thermoreceptors in a species or cell type specific manner. In each case, robust thermal sensitivity likely reflects specialized anatomical features of infrared sensing pit organs, as well as intrinsic heat sensitivity of trigeminal nerve fibers that innervate these structures. Here we show that vampire bats use a molecular strategy involving alternative splicing of the TRPV1 gene to generate a channel specifically within trigeminal ganglia that has a reduced thermal activation threshold. Selective expression of splicing factors in trigeminal, but not dorsal root ganglia, together with unique organization of the vampire bat TRPV1 gene underlies this mechanism of sensory adaptation. Comparative genomic analysis of the TRPV1 locus supports phylogenetic relationships within the proposed Pegasoferae clade of mammals.
Project description:Vampire bats and snakes have taken thermosensation to the extreme by developing specialized systems for detecting infrared radiation. As such, these creatures provide a window into the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying evolutionary tuning of thermoreceptors in a species or cell type specific manner. In each case, robust thermal sensitivity likely reflects specialized anatomical features of infrared sensing pit organs, as well as intrinsic heat sensitivity of trigeminal nerve fibers that innervate these structures. Here we show that vampire bats use a molecular strategy involving alternative splicing of the TRPV1 gene to generate a channel specifically within trigeminal ganglia that has a reduced thermal activation threshold. Selective expression of splicing factors in trigeminal, but not dorsal root ganglia, together with unique organization of the vampire bat TRPV1 gene underlies this mechanism of sensory adaptation. Comparative genomic analysis of the TRPV1 locus supports phylogenetic relationships within the proposed Pegasoferae clade of mammals. Gene expression measurements implicate a TRPV1 splice isoform as the heat-sensitive channel in vampire bats
Project description:Sepioloidea lineolata, the striped pyjama squid (family Sepiadariidae), is a small species of benthic squid distributed along the Southern Indo-Pacific coast of Australia. All sepiadariid squids are known to secrete large volumes of viscous slime when stressed. The proteome of S. lineolata slime was analysed by combining high resolution mass spectrometry data with an S. lineolata transcriptome assembled from five tissues including slime. The composition of S. lineolata slime was also compared to that of the closely related S. austrinum (southern bottletail squid). Of the 550 protein groups identified in S. lineolata slime, 321 had orthologs in S. austrinum, and the abundance of these (iBAQ) was highly correlated between species. Both slimes were dominated by a small number of highly abundant proteins and several of these were short secreted proteins that had no homologues outside the class Cephalopoda. The extent of N-glycosylation in the slime of S. lineolata was also studied via glycan cleavage with PNGase-F. Four proteins had strong evidence of N-glycosylated, with treatment with PNGase-F showing a slight increase in peptide identification rates.
Project description:We report the full transcriptome (RNA-Seq) of Vibrio fischeri ES114 in rich medium, seawater, and after venting from the Hawaiian bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes. We also report the effects of ribodepletion on low-biomass samples, down to input amount of 1ng total RNA.
Project description:Sepioloidea lineolata, the striped pyjama squid (family Sepidariidae), is a small species of benthic squid distributed along the Southern Indo-Pacfic coast of Australia. All Sepiadariid squids are known to secrete large volumes of viscous slime when stressed. The proteome of the slime, dorsal and ventral mantle muscle, the dorsal and ventral mantle epithelium and ventral mantle glands was analysed by combining label-free quantitative analysis using high resolution mass spectrometry data with an S. lineolata transcriptome assembled from give tissues including slime. A total of 28 highly positively differentially expressed proteins were identified within the slime and were predominately comprised of a host of enzymes including peptidases and protease inhibitors. Seven of these proteins contained predicted signal peptides, indicating classical secretion, with four proteins having no identifiable domains or similarity to any known proteins.