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Elbassiouny AA, Buck LT, Abatti LE, Mitchell JA, Crampton WGR, Lovejoy NR, Chang BSW. Evolution of a novel regulatory mechanism of hypoxia inducible factor in hypoxia-tolerant electric fishes. J Biol Chem 2024; 300:105727. [PMID: 38325739 PMCID: PMC10958119 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2024.105727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2023] [Revised: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 02/01/2024] [Indexed: 02/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Hypoxia is a significant source of metabolic stress that activates many cellular pathways involved in cellular differentiation, proliferation, and cell death. Hypoxia is also a major component in many human diseases and a known driver of many cancers. Despite the challenges posed by hypoxia, there are animals that display impressive capacity to withstand lethal levels of hypoxia for prolonged periods of time and thus offer a gateway to a more comprehensive understanding of the hypoxic response in vertebrates. The weakly electric fish genus Brachyhypopomus inhabits some of the most challenging aquatic ecosystems in the world, with some species experiencing seasonal anoxia, thus providing a unique system to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms of hypoxia tolerance. In this study, we use closely related species of Brachyhypopomus that display a range of hypoxia tolerances to probe for the underlying molecular mechanisms via hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs)-transcription factors known to coordinate the cellular response to hypoxia in vertebrates. We find that HIF1⍺ from hypoxia tolerant Brachyhypopomus species displays higher transactivation in response to hypoxia than that of intolerant species, when overexpressed in live cells. Moreover, we identified two SUMO-interacting motifs near the oxygen-dependent degradation and transactivation domains of the HIF1⍺ protein that appear to boost transactivation of HIF1, regardless of the genetic background. Together with computational analyses of selection, this shows that evolution of HIF1⍺ are likely to underlie adaptations to hypoxia tolerance in Brachyhypopomus electric fishes, with changes in two SUMO-interacting motifs facilitating the mechanism of this tolerance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ahmed A Elbassiouny
- Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
| | - Leslie T Buck
- Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Luis E Abatti
- Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jennifer A Mitchell
- Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | | | - Nathan R Lovejoy
- Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
| | - Belinda S W Chang
- Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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OUP accepted manuscript. Zool J Linn Soc 2022. [DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
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Waddell JC, Crampton WGR. Reproductive effort and terminal investment in a multi‐species assemblage of Amazon electric fish. ECOL MONOGR 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/ecm.1499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joseph C. Waddell
- Department of Biology University of Central Florida 4100 Libra Dr 32816 Orlando FL USA
- Department of Integrative and Computational Neurobiology Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable Av. Italia 3318 Montevideo 11600 Uruguay
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