MBE Advance Access originally published online on July 31, 2009
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2009 26(11):2551-2561; doi:10.1093/molbev/msp170
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Research Articles |
Self-Recognition and Ca2+-Dependent Carbohydrate–Carbohydrate Cell Adhesion Provide Clues to the Cambrian Explosion
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* Nanobioengineering Group, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain
Biomolecular Interactions Team, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute, Barcelona Science Park, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA
Experimental Biophysics and Applied Nanoscience, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
|| Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
¶ Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Novartis Research Foundation, Novartis International AG, Basel, Switzerland
E-mail: xfernandez_busquets{at}ub.edu; Dario.Anselmetti{at}physik.uni-bielefeld.de.
Accepted for publication July 23, 2009.
The Cambrian explosion of life was a relatively short period approximately 540 Ma that marked a generalized acceleration in the evolution of most animal phyla, but the trigger of this key biological event remains elusive. Sponges are the oldest extant Precambrian metazoan phylum and thus a valid model to study factors that could have unleashed the rise of multicellular animals. One such factor is the advent of self-/non–self-recognition systems, which would be evolutionarily beneficial to organisms to prevent germ-cell parasitism or the introduction of deleterious mutations resulting from fusion with genetically different individuals. However, the molecules responsible for allorecognition probably evolved gradually before the Cambrian period, and some other (external) factor remains to be identified as the missing triggering event. Sponge cells associate through calcium-dependent, multivalent carbohydrate–carbohydrate interactions of the g200 glycan found on extracellular proteoglycans. Single molecule force spectroscopy analysis of g200–g200 binding indicates that calcium affects the lifetime (+Ca/–Ca: 680 s/3 s) and bond reaction length (+Ca/–Ca: 3.47 Å/2.27 Å). Calculation of mean g200 dissociation times in low and high calcium within the theoretical framework of a cooperative binding model indicates the nonlinear and divergent characteristics leading to either disaggregated cells or stable multicellular assemblies, respectively. This fundamental phenomenon can explain a switch from weak to strong adhesion between primitive metazoan cells caused by the well-documented rise in ocean calcium levels at the end of Precambrian time. We propose that stronger cell adhesion allowed the integrity of genetically uniform animals composed only of "self" cells, facilitating genetic constitutions to remain within the metazoan individual and be passed down inheritance lines. The Cambrian explosion might have been triggered by the coincidence in time of primitive animals endowed with self-/non–self-recognition and of a surge in seawater calcium that increased the binding forces between their calcium-dependent cell adhesion molecules.
Key Words: calcium • Cambrian explosion • carbohydrates • cell adhesion • origin of Metazoa • sponges
Billie Swalla, Associate Editor