Molecular tuning of sea anemone stinging
Abstract
Jellyfish and sea anemones fire single-use, venom-covered barbs to immobilize prey or predators. We previously showed that the anemone Nematostella vectensis uses a specialized voltage-gated calcium (CaV) channel to trigger stinging in response to synergistic prey-derived chemicals and touch (Weir et al., 2020). Here, we use experiments and theory to find that stinging behavior is suited to distinct ecological niches. We find that the burrowing anemone Nematostella uses uniquely strong CaV inactivation for precise control of predatory stinging. In contrast, the related anemone Exaiptasia diaphana inhabits exposed environments to support photosynthetic endosymbionts. Consistent with its niche, Exaiptasia indiscriminately stings for defense and expresses a CaV splice variant that confers weak inactivation. Chimeric analyses reveal that CaVĪ² subunit adaptations regulate inactivation, suggesting an evolutionary tuning mechanism for stinging behavior. These findings demonstrate how functional specialization of ion channel structure contributes to distinct organismal behavior.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 31, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.7554/elife.88900
Entities
People
- Agnese Seminara
- Corey Ah Allard
- Keiko Weir
- Lily S He
- Nicholas W Bellono
- Stephanie P Krueger
- Wendy A Valencia-montoya
- Yujia Qi
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- European Research Council
- Harvard University
- National Institutes of Health
- National Science Foundation
- New York Stem Cell Foundation
- University of Genoa