ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2011
A horizontal gene transfer supported the evolution of an early metazoan biomineralization strategy.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed.
- A compendium of horizontal gene transfers in Metazoa.Scientific data · 2026Article
- The eukaryotic horizontal gene transfer dataset a compendium.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Horizontal Transfer of msp130 Genes and the Evolution of Metazoan Biocalcification.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Invasive mussels fashion silk-like byssus via mechanical processing of massive horizontally acquired coiled coils.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Marine Sponge Endosymbionts: Structural and Functional Specificity of the Microbiome withinMicrobiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Elucidation of host and symbiont contributions to peptidoglycan metabolism based on comparative genomics of eight aphid subfamilies and their Buchnera.PLoS genetics · 2022Article
- Article
- Forced Biomineralization: A Review.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Amino acid sequence associated with bacteriophage recombination site helps to reveal genes potentially acquired through horizontal gene transfer.BMC bioinformatics · 2020Article
- Features of a novel protein, rusticalin, from the ascidianMobile DNA · 2019Article
- Variation in Orthologous Shell-Forming Proteins Contribute to Molluscan Shell Diversity.Molecular biology and evolution · 2017Article
- Microbial contributions to the persistence of coral reefs.The ISME journal · 2017Article
- Endosymbiotic calcifying bacteria across sponge species and oceans.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Nothing in Evolution Makes Sense Except in the Light of Genomics: Read-Write Genome Evolution as an Active Biological Process.Biology · 2016Review
- Characterization of an Alpha Type Carbonic Anhydrase from Paracentrotus lividus Sea Urchin Embryos.Marine biotechnology (New York, N.Y.) · 2016Article
- The Sponge Hologenome.mBio · 2016Review
- Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals insights into the streamlined genomes of haplosclerid demosponges.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Article
- Horizontal functional gene transfer from bacteria to fishes.Scientific reports · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe synchronous and widespread adoption of the ability to biomineralize was a defining event for metazoan evolution during the late Precambrian/early Cambrian 545 million years ago. However our understanding on the molecular level of how animals first evolved this capacity is poor. Because sponges are the earliest branching phylum of biomineralizing metazoans, we have been studying how biocalcification occurs in the coralline demosponge Astrosclera willeyana.
resultsWe have isolated and characterized a novel protein directly from the calcified spherulites of A. willeyana. Using three independent lines of evidence (genomic architecture of the gene in A. willeyana, spatial expression of the gene product in A. willeyana and genomic architecture of the gene in the related demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica), we show that the gene that encodes this protein was horizontally acquired from a bacterium, and is now highly and exclusively expressed in spherulite forming cells.
conclusionsOur findings highlight the ancient and close association that exists between sponges and bacteria, and provide support for the notion that horizontal gene transfer may have been an important mechanism that supported the evolution of this early metazoan biomineralisation strategy.
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