Muscle cell-type diversification is driven by bHLH transcription factor expansion and extensive effector gene duplications

Alison G. Cole (), Stefan M. Jahnel, Sabrina Kaul, Julia Steger, Julia Hagauer, Andreas Denner, Patricio Ferrer Murguia, Elisabeth Taudes, Bob Zimmermann, Robert Reischl, Patrick R. H. Steinmetz and Ulrich Technau ()
Additional contact information
Alison G. Cole: University of Vienna
Stefan M. Jahnel: University of Vienna
Sabrina Kaul: University of Vienna
Julia Steger: University of Vienna
Julia Hagauer: University of Vienna
Andreas Denner: University of Vienna
Patricio Ferrer Murguia: University of Vienna
Elisabeth Taudes: University of Vienna
Bob Zimmermann: University of Vienna
Robert Reischl: University of Vienna
Patrick R. H. Steinmetz: University of Vienna
Ulrich Technau: University of Vienna

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Animals are typically composed of hundreds of different cell types, yet mechanisms underlying the emergence of new cell types remain unclear. Here we address the origin and diversification of muscle cells in the non-bilaterian, diploblastic sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. We discern two fast and two slow-contracting muscle cell populations, which differ by extensive sets of paralogous structural protein genes. We find that the regulatory gene set of the slow cnidarian muscles is remarkably similar to the bilaterian cardiac muscle, while the two fast muscles differ substantially from each other in terms of transcription factor profiles, though driving the same set of structural protein genes and having similar physiological characteristics. We show that anthozoan-specific paralogs of Paraxis/Twist/Hand-related bHLH transcription factors are involved in the formation of fast and slow muscles. Our data suggest that the subsequent recruitment of an entire effector gene set from the inner cell layer into the neural ectoderm contributes to the evolution of a novel muscle cell type. Thus, we conclude that extensive transcription factor gene duplications and co-option of effector modules act as an evolutionary mechanism underlying cell type diversification during metazoan evolution.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37220-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37220-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37220-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().