Thanks to the slow worm Platynereis dumerilii, a slowly evolving gene, a team of scientists has shown that although hemoglobin has appeared independently in several species, it is actually derived from a single gene. which was given to all by their last common ancestor.
The findings of the study by scientists from CNRS, Universite de Paris and Sorbonne Universite, in collaboration with others at the University of Saint Petersburg and the University of Rio de Janeiro, were published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.
Red blood is not specific to humans or mammals. This dye comes from hemoglobin, a complex protein that specializes in carrying the oxygen found in the spinal circulatory system, but also in annelids (a worm family that has the most prominent members earthworms), molluscs (especially pond snails) and barks (such as daphnia or ‘water flies’). It was thought that if hemoglobin has appeared in such diverse species, it needs to be ‘formed’ several times during evolution. But recent research has shown that all of these hemoglobins are born ‘independently’ from a single ancestral gene.
Researchers from the Institut Jacques Monod (CNRS / Universite de Paris), Center Laboratoire Matiere et Systemes (CNRS / Universite de Paris), Biologique de Roscoff Station (CNRS / Sorbonne Universite), Universities of Saint Petersburg (Russia) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), who conducted this research on Platynereis dumerilii, a small red – blooded sea worm.
It is thought to be a slowly evolving animal, as its genetic traits are close to those of the marine ancestor of most animals, Urbilateria (1). Examining these worms by comparing them with other species with red blood has helped to trace the origins of hemoglobins.
The research focused on the broad family to which hemoglobins belong: globins, proteins present in almost all living creatures that store gases such as oxygen and nitric oxide. But globins usually work inside the cells because they do not circulate in the blood like hemoglobin.
This work shows that all species with red blood cells are the only globin-producing gene called ‘cytoglobin’ that has independently become a hemoglobin-encoding gene. This new circulating molecule made oxygen transport more efficient than its predecessors, which became larger and more active.
Scientists now want to change scale and continue this work by studying when and how the different specialized cells of bilaterian viral systems appeared.
(1) Urbilateria is the last common ancestor of bilaterians, i.e. animals with bilateral symmetry (left to right) and complex organs, as well as species with simpler organization such as sponges and slippery.
(This story was published from a wire group group without text modification.)
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