Gamete interaction protein evolution in Panthera onca

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

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

EMBL

Gamete interaction protein evolution in Panthera onca Clara Campos, Clementina Penna, Francisco Pisciotanno, Patricia SaragüetaInstituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (IBYME-CONICET)}AbstractThe mammalian fertilization process has been extensively described by both physiology and molecular biology. Zona Pellucida (ZP) and Juno oocyte proteins play a key role in this process, facilitating the interaction and fusion between the oocyte and the sperm respectively. Their interactions with sperm counterparts constitute a pre-cigotic reproductive isolation mechanism. Owing to protein specificity of these interactions, they are involved in the species-specific barrier. The jaguar is the most relevant predator in South America and an endangered species in Argentina. This is the reason why it is strategic to work in depth on genomic, evolutionary and functional studies. The jaguar (Panthera onca) genome release and recent introgression and hybridization genomic analysis revealed that unusually high rates of fertilization among pantherines could be the cause of the complex patterns of historical inter-specific hybridization found in the Pantherinae lineage, particularly between Panthera leo and Panthera onca. We aimed to uncover the underlying molecular basis of this inter-species crossing and evolution of the functional capacities of pantherines ZP and JUNO proteins. This work explored positive selection analysis of ZP1, ZP2. ZP3, ZP4, ISUMOR ZPs in mammals, carnivores, caniforms, feliforms and pantherines. Our results showed that sperm-oocyte interaction and fusion proteins are conserved along the Pantherinae lineage, preventing pre-zygotic reproductive isolation.