Phylotranscriptomics suggests the jawed vertebrate ancestor could generate diverse helper and regulatory T cell subsets
Date
2018Journal
BMC Evolutionary BiologyPublisher
BioMed Central Ltd.Type
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background: The cartilaginous fishes diverged from other jawed vertebrates ~ 450 million years ago (mya). Despite this key evolutionary position, the only high-quality cartilaginous fish genome available is for the elephant shark (Callorhinchus milii), a chimaera whose ancestors split from the elasmobranch lineage ~ 420 mya. Initial analysis of this resource led to proposals that key components of the cartilaginous fish adaptive immune system, most notably their array of T cell subsets, was primitive compared to mammals. This proposal is at odds with the robust, antigen-specific antibody responses reported in elasmobranchs following immunization. To explore this discrepancy, we generated a multi-tissue transcriptome for small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula), a tractable elasmobranch model for functional studies. We searched this, and other newly available sequence datasets, for CD4+ T cell subset-defining genes, aiming to confirm the presence or absence of each subset in cartilaginous fishes. Results: We generated a new transcriptome based on a normalised, multi-tissue RNA pool, aiming to maximise representation of tissue-specific and lowly expressed genes. We utilized multiple transcriptomic datasets and assembly variants in phylogenetic reconstructions to unambiguously identify several T cell subset-specific molecules in cartilaginous fishes for the first time, including interleukins, interleukin receptors, and key transcription factors. Our results reveal the inability of standard phylogenetic reconstruction approaches to capture the site-specific evolutionary processes of fast-evolving immune genes but show that site-heterogeneous mixture models can adequately do so. Conclusions: Our analyses reveal that cartilaginous fishes are capable of producing a range of CD4+ T cell subsets comparable to that of mammals. Further, that the key molecules required for the differentiation and functioning of these subsets existed in the jawed vertebrate ancestor. Additionally, we highlight the importance of considering phylogenetic diversity and, where possible, utilizing multiple datasets for individual species, to accurately infer gene presence or absence at higher taxonomic levels. © 2018 The Author(s).Sponsors
We are grateful to Dr. Elaina Collie-Duguid, Prof David Salt (University of Nottingham), Mr. Brennan Martin, Mrs. Diane Stewart, and the rest of the Centre for Genome-Enabled Biology and Medicine team at University of Aberdeen for their advice and/or technical assistance. We thank Dr. Abdullah Alzaid for advice on RNA isolation, and Dr. Rita Pettinello for assistance with tissue sampling (both University of Aberdeen). We acknowledge the support of the Maxwell compute cluster funded by the University of Aberdeen. Finally, we extend thanks to Dr. Tom Williams (University of Bristol) for helpful discussion, and Dr. Bui Quang Minh (Centre for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna) for advice on IQ-tree model implementation.Keyword
Cartilaginous fishElasmobranch
Immune gene evolution
Immunity
Interleukin
Phylogenetic rooting
Shark
Site-heterogeneous models
T cell
Transcriptome
Identifier to cite or link to this item
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85056629661&doi=10.1186%2fs12862-018-1290-2&partnerID=40&md5=dd99a627ac0a077ee1cc9b532d199ac3; http://hdl.handle.net/10713/8839ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1186/s12862-018-1290-2
Scopus Count
Collections
Related articles
- Ancient Duplications and Expression Divergence in the Globin Gene Superfamily of Vertebrates: Insights from the Elephant Shark Genome and Transcriptome.
- Authors: Opazo JC, Lee AP, Hoffmann FG, Toloza-Villalobos J, Burmester T, Venkatesh B, Storz JF
- Issue date: 2015 Jul
- Elephant shark sequence reveals unique insights into the evolutionary history of vertebrate genes: A comparative analysis of the protocadherin cluster.
- Authors: Yu WP, Rajasegaran V, Yew K, Loh WL, Tay BH, Amemiya CT, Brenner S, Venkatesh B
- Issue date: 2008 Mar 11
- Elephant shark genome provides unique insights into gnathostome evolution.
- Authors: Venkatesh B, Lee AP, Ravi V, Maurya AK, Lian MM, Swann JB, Ohta Y, Flajnik MF, Sutoh Y, Kasahara M, Hoon S, Gangu V, Roy SW, Irimia M, Korzh V, Kondrychyn I, Lim ZW, Tay BH, Tohari S, Kong KW, Ho S, Lorente-Galdos B, Quilez J, Marques-Bonet T, Raney BJ, Ingham PW, Tay A, Hillier LW, Minx P, Boehm T, Wilson RK, Brenner S, Warren WC
- Issue date: 2014 Jan 9
- Expression of Wnt signaling skeletal development genes in the cartilaginous fish, elephant shark (Callorhinchus milii).
- Authors: D'Souza DG, Rana K, Milley KM, MacLean HE, Zajac JD, Bell J, Brenner S, Venkatesh B, Richardson SJ, Danks JA
- Issue date: 2013 Nov 1
- Revisiting the evolution of the somatostatin family: Already five genes in the gnathostome ancestor.
- Authors: Tostivint H, Gaillard AL, Mazan S, Pézeron G
- Issue date: 2019 Aug 1