0000000000530576
AUTHOR
Reinhard Dallinger
Responsiveness of metallothionein and hemocyanin genes to cadmium and copper exposure in the garden snail Cornu aspersum.
Abstract Terrestrial gastropods express metal‐selective metallothioneins (MTs) by which they handle metal ions such as Zn2+, Cd2+, and Cu+/Cu2+ through separate metabolic pathways. At the same time, they depend on the availability of sufficient amounts of Cu as an essential constituent of their respiratory protein, hemocyanin (Hc). It was, therefore, suggested that in snails Cu‐dependent MT and Hc pathways might be metabolically connected. In fact, the Cu‐specific snail MT (CuMT) is exclusively expressed in rhogocytes, a particular molluscan cell type present in the hemocoel and connective tissues. Snail rhogocytes are also the sites of Hc synthesis. In the present study, possible interacti…
Phylogeography of the Eurasian Willow Tit (Parus montanus) based on DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene.
The phylogeographic relationships of the trans-Palearctic Willow Tit assemblage were studied by obtaining sequence data from the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene from 34 specimens representing nine subspecies from across the species range. Four distinct genetic groups were identified: Parus montanus weigoldicus, P. m. affinis, P. m. songarus, and a clade containing six Eurasian subspecies (ssp. baicalensis, borealis, montanus, restrictus, rhenanus, and sachalinensis). P. m. weigoldicus, P. m. affinis, and P. m. songarus were reciprocally monophyletic and separated from each other and other subspecies by uncorrected genetic distances between 1.9 and 5.8%. The remaining six subspecies were clo…
The metal binding abilities of Megathura crenulata metallothionein (McMT) in the frame of gastropoda MTs.
Metallothioneins (MTs) are proteins that play a major role in metal homeostasis and/or detoxification in all kind of organisms. The MT gene/protein system of gastropod molluscs provides an invaluable model to study the diversification mechanisms that have enabled MTs to achieve metal-binding specificity through evolution. Most pulmonate gastropods, particularly terrestrial snails, harbor three paralogous isogenes encoding three MT isoforms with different metal binding preferences: the highly specific CdMT and CuMT isoforms, for cadmium and copper respectively, and the unspecific Cd/CuMT isoform. Megathura crenulata is a non-pulmonate gastropod in which only one MT isogene has so far been re…
Hemocyanin genes as indicators of habitat shifts in Panpulmonata?
Hemocyanin is the primary respiratory protein for the majority of the Mollusca and therefore directly interfaces with the physiological requirements of each species and the environments to which they are adapted. Hemocyanin is therefore likely to have been evolutionarily imprinted by significant habitat shifts. In the gastropod clade Panpulmonata (>30,000 species) major realm transitions have occurred multiple times independently and may have contributed to the diversification of this group. Yet, little is known about the adaptive changes linked to these habitat shifts. In order to gain deeper insight into the evolution of panpulmonate hemocyanins and to infer possible impacts associated wi…