Project description:Snakes possess a unique sensory system for detecting infrared radiation, enabling them to generate a ‘thermal image’ of predators or prey. Infrared signals are initially received by the pit organ, a highly specialized facial structure that is innervated by nerve fibers of the somatosensory system. How this organ detects and transduces infrared signals into nerve impulses is not known. Here we use an unbiased transcriptional profiling approach to identify TRPA1 as the infrared receptor on sensory neurons that innervate the pit organ. TRPA1 from pit bearing snakes (rattlesnakes and pythons) are the most heat sensitive vertebrate ion channels thus far identified, consistent with their role as primary transducers of infrared stimuli in these animals. Thus, snakes detect infrared signals through a mechanism involving radiant heating of the pit organ, rather than photochemical transduction. These findings illustrate the broad evolutionary tuning of TRP channels as thermosensors in the vertebrate nervous system. Gene expression measurements implicate TRPA1 as the heat-sensitive channel in diverse pit snakes
Project description:Snakes possess a unique sensory system for detecting infrared radiation, enabling them to generate a ‘thermal image’ of predators or prey. Infrared signals are initially received by the pit organ, a highly specialized facial structure that is innervated by nerve fibers of the somatosensory system. How this organ detects and transduces infrared signals into nerve impulses is not known. Here we use an unbiased transcriptional profiling approach to identify TRPA1 as the infrared receptor on sensory neurons that innervate the pit organ. TRPA1 from pit bearing snakes (rattlesnakes and pythons) are the most heat sensitive vertebrate ion channels thus far identified, consistent with their role as primary transducers of infrared stimuli in these animals. Thus, snakes detect infrared signals through a mechanism involving radiant heating of the pit organ, rather than photochemical transduction. These findings illustrate the broad evolutionary tuning of TRP channels as thermosensors in the vertebrate nervous system.
Project description:Our genomic, bulk and single-cell transcriptomic, functional, and developmental characterization of the Terrazzo corn snake color morph and the extensive comparison with wild-type snakes puts forward the dual role of PMEL in snake skin coloration, both in the differentiation of chromatophores during embryogenesis and the melanogenesis in melanophores.
Project description:Our genomic, bulk and single-cell transcriptomic, functional, and developmental characterization of the Terrazzo corn snake color morph and the extensive comparison with wild-type snakes puts forward the dual role of PMEL in snake skin coloration, both in the differentiation of chromatophores during embryogenesis and the melanogenesis in melanophores.
Project description:Background: Snakes exhibit a broad variety of adaptive colours and colour patterns, generated by the spatial arrangement of chromatophores, but little is known of the mechanisms responsible for these spectacular traits. Here, we investigate a monolocus trait with two recessive alleles that cause pattern aberrations in the corn snake: the motley and striped alleles. Results: We use mapping-by-sequencing to identify the genomic interval where the causal mutations reside. With our differential gene expression analyses, we find that CLCN2 (Chloride Voltage-Gated Channel 2), a gene within the genomic interval, is significantly downregulated in Motley embryonic skin. Furthermore, the insertion of a retrotransposon in CLCN2 results in a disruptive mutation in Stripe. We confirm the involvement of CLCN2 in colour pattern formation by producing knock-out snakes that present a phenotype similar to the Stripe one. In humans and mice, the disruption of CLCN2 results in leukoencephalopathy, as well as retinal and testes degeneration. Our single-cell transcriptomic analyses reveal that CLCN2 is indeed expressed in chromatophores during embryogenesis and in the adult brain. Although, we observe signs of vacuolation in the Stripe adult brain, the retina of Motley and Stripe animals is intact, and no fertility issues are reported for the carriers of both alleles. Conclusions: Our genomic, transcriptomic and functional analyses identify a plasma membrane anion channel to be involved in colour pattern development in Squamate reptiles and show that an active LTR-retrotransposon might be a key driver of trait diversification in corn snakes.