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sine oculis in basal Metazoa

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Abstract

We report the recovery of homologs of Six1/2/sine oculis (so), a homeodomain-containing member of the Six-gene family, from a diverse set of basal Metazoa, including representatives of the poriferan classes Demospongia, Calcarea and Hexactinellida, the cnidarian classes Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa and Anthozoa, as well as a ctenophore. so sequences were also recovered from a platyhelminth, an echiurid and two bivalve molluscs, members of the super-phyletic group Lophotrochozoa. In the case of the platyhelminth, multiple distinct so sequences were recovered, as well as a member of the related group Six4/5/D-Six4. Extended sequences of the so gene were recovered from the demosponge, Haliclona sp., and the scyphozoan Aurelia aurita via PCR, and 3′ RACE. The affinities of all recovered sequences were assessed using a parsimony analysis based on both nucleic and amino acid sequence and using successive character weighting. Our results indicate that so is highly conserved across the animal kingdom. Preliminary expression data for Aurelia reveal that transcripts of the so homolog are present in the manubrium as well as in the rhopalia, which contain the statocyst and eyes, in the free-swimming ephyra and juvenile stages of these jellyfish.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Shannon Lee for help with the phylogenetic analysis, Sally Leys for supplying hexactinellid material, Mike Schaadt of the Cabrillo Aquarium for providing Aurelia material and much help in the rearing of Aurelia, Vincent Levesque of the Birch Aquarium at Scripps for providing ephyrae and polyps for our cultures, Anthony Camara for sequencing COI, Alexander Nederbragt and Mark Martindale for providing the ctenophore sequence and NASA and NSF for grant support. This is HIMB contribution # 1182.

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  1. Ilona G. Bebenek

    Present address: School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, 640 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

  2. Ruth D. Gates

    Present address: Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, SOEST, University of Hawaii, PO Box 1346, Kaneohe, HI, 96744, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Organismic Biology Ecology and Evolution, University of California Los Angeles, 621 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1606, USA

    Ilona G. Bebenek, Ruth D. Gates & David K. Jacobs

  2. Department of Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of California Los Angeles, 621 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1606, USA

    Joshua Morris, Volker Hartenstein & David K. Jacobs

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  1. Ilona G. Bebenek
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Correspondence to David K. Jacobs.

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Bebenek, I.G., Gates, R.D., Morris, J. et al. sine oculis in basal Metazoa. Dev Genes Evol 214, 342–351 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-004-0407-3

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