ArticleeLife2022
Connexins evolved after early chordates lost innexin diversity.
Article in eLife, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Single-cell transcriptomics and RNAi screening define a hierarchical program of planarian eye regeneration.Cell reports · 2026Article
- The evolutionary origins of synaptic proteins and their changing roles in different organisms across evolution.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Controllable gap junctions by vitamin BProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The Double-Edged Effect of Connexins and Pannexins of Glial Cells in Central and Peripheral Nervous System After Nerve Injury.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Review
- Dysregulation of Glial Gap Junction Protein Innexin2 Mediates Seizures and Disrupted Sleep in a Drosophila Model for North Sea Progressive Myoclonus Epilepsy.Journal of neuroscience research · 2025Article
- Regulation of Cx36 trafficking through the early secretory pathway by COPII cargo receptors and Grasp55.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2024Article
- Trafficking of Connexin36 (Cx36) in the early secretory pathway.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Gap Junctions in Ctenophora.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- Neurobeachin controls the asymmetric subcellular distribution of electrical synapse proteins.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- Independent Innexin Radiation Shaped Signaling in Ctenophores.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- The premetazoan ancestry of the synaptic toolkit and appearance of first neurons.Essays in biochemistry · 2022Article
- Alternative neural systems: What is a neuron? (Ctenophores, sponges and placozoans).Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Gap junction channels are formed by two unrelated protein families. Non-chordates use the primordial innexins, while chordates use connexins that superseded the gap junction function of innexins. Chordates retained innexin-homologs, but N-glycosylation prevents them from forming gap junctions. It is puzzling why chordates seem to exclusively use the new gap junction protein and why no chordates should exist that use non-glycosylated innexins to form gap junctions. Here, we identified glycosylation sites of 2388 innexins from 174 non-chordate and 276 chordate species. Among all chordates, we found not a single innexin without glycosylation sites. Surprisingly, the glycosylation motif is also widespread among non-chordate innexins indicating that glycosylated innexins are not a novelty of chordates. In addition, we discovered a loss of innexin diversity during early chordate evolution. Most importantly, lancelets, which lack connexins, exclusively possess only one highly conserved innexin with one glycosylation site. A bottleneck effect might thus explain why connexins have become the only protein used to form chordate gap junctions.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.