Gamete interaction protein evolution in Panthera onca

CAMPOS, MARÍA CLARA; PENNA, CLEMENTINA; PISCIOTTANO, FRANCISCO; SARAGÜETA, PATRICIA

Congreso; EMBO Workshop: The evolution of animal genomes; 2021

EMBO

Gamete interaction protein evolution in Panthera oncaClara Campos, Clementina Penna, Francisco Pisciotanno, PatriciaSaragüetaInstituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (IBYME-CONICET)AbstractThe mammalian fertilization process has been extensively describedby both physiology and molecular biology. Zona Pellucida (ZP) andJuno oocyte proteins play a key role in this process, facilitating theinteraction and fusion between the oocyte and the sperm respectively.Their interactions with sperm counterparts constitute a pre-zygoticreproductive isolation mechanism. Owing to protein specificity ofthese interactions, they are involved in the species-specific barrier.The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the most relevant predator in SouthAmerica and an endangered species in Argentina. This is the reasonwhy it is strategic to work in depth on genomic, evolutionary andfunctional studies. Genomic introgression analysis exposed a complexpattern of historical inter-specific hybridization in the Pantherinaelineage. These findings revealed unusually high rates of fertilizationamong pantherines, particularly between Panthera leo and Pantheraonca, that would indicate an absence of inter-specific isolationbarriers. We aimed to uncover the underlying molecular basis of thisinter-species crossing and evolution of the functional capacities ofpantherines ZPs and JUNO proteins. Hi-C long-range sequencing andproximity-ligation method, error-free chromosome-resolved genomeassembly was used to reconstruct the intricate phylogeny of gameteinteraction proteins. This work explored molecular evolution of ZP1,ZP2, ZP3, ZP4, IZUMO1R genes among mammals focusing oncarnivores, caniforms, feliforms and pantherines. We found that, whileZP1, ZP2 and ZP3 showed a similar pattern of evolution along theirphylogenies, ZP4, a recent gene duplication of ZP1, displayed adifferent evolutionary history. The fusion protein IZUMO1R was foundto be highly conserved among all studied phylogenetic groups.Altogether, our results indicate that sperm-oocyte interaction andfusion proteins lack the degree of diversification necessary to fix apre-zygotic reproductive isolation barrier between the Pantherines.EMBO WorkshopThe evolution of animal genomes13 ? 17 September 2021 | Virtual