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Heckenhauer J, Stewart RJ, Ríos-Touma B, Powell A, Dorji T, Frandsen PB, Pauls SU. Characterization of the primary structure of the major silk gene, h-fibroin, across caddisfly (Trichoptera) suborders. iScience 2023; 26:107253. [PMID: 37529107 PMCID: PMC10387566 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2023] [Revised: 04/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Larvae of caddisflies (Trichoptera) produce silk to build various underwater structures allowing them to exploit a wide range of aquatic environments. The silk adheres to various substrates underwater and has high tensile strength, extensibility, and toughness and is of interest as a model for biomimetic adhesives. As a step toward understanding how the properties of underwater silk evolved in Trichoptera, we used genomic data to identify full-length sequences and characterize the primary structure of the major silk protein, h-fibroin, across the order. The h-fibroins have conserved termini and basic motif structure with high variation in repeating modules and variation in the percentage of amino acids, mainly proline. This finding might be linked to differences in mechanical properties related to the different silk usage and sets a starting point for future studies to screen and correlate amino acid motifs and other sequence features with quantifiable silk properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacqueline Heckenhauer
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG), Frankfurt, Hesse 60325, Germany
- Department of Terrestrial Zoology, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Hesse 60325, Germany
| | - Russell J. Stewart
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
| | - Blanca Ríos-Touma
- Facultad de Ingenierías y Ciencias Aplicadas, Ingeniería Ambiental, Grupo de Investigación en Biodiversidad, Medio Ambiente y Salud (BIOMAS), Universidad de Las Américas, Quito, EC 170124, Ecuador
| | - Ashlyn Powell
- Department of Plant and Wildlife Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
| | - Tshering Dorji
- Department of Environment and Climate Studies, Royal University of Bhutan, Punakha 13001, Bhutan
| | - Paul B. Frandsen
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG), Frankfurt, Hesse 60325, Germany
- Department of Plant and Wildlife Science, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
- Data Science Lab, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA
| | - Steffen U. Pauls
- LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG), Frankfurt, Hesse 60325, Germany
- Department of Terrestrial Zoology, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Hesse 60325, Germany
- Institute for Insect Biotechnology, Justus-Liebig-University, Gießen, Hesse 35392; Germany
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Ecological and Societal Services of Aquatic Diptera. INSECTS 2019; 10:insects10030070. [PMID: 30875770 PMCID: PMC6468872 DOI: 10.3390/insects10030070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2019] [Revised: 02/28/2019] [Accepted: 03/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
More than any other group of macro-organisms, true flies (Diptera) dominate the freshwater environment. Nearly one-third of all flies—roughly 46,000 species—have some developmental connection with an aquatic environment. Their abundance, ubiquity, and diversity of adaptations to the aquatic environment position them as major drivers of ecosystem processes and as sources of products and bioinspiration for the benefit of human society. Larval flies are well represented as ecosystem engineers and keystone species that alter the abiotic and biotic environments through activities such as burrowing, grazing, suspension feeding, and predation. The enormous populations sometimes achieved by aquatic flies can provide the sole or major dietary component for other organisms. Harnessing the services of aquatic Diptera for human benefit depends on the ingenuity of the scientific community. Aquatic flies have played a role as indicators of water quality from the earliest years of bioassessment. They serve as indicators of historical and future ecological and climate change. As predators and herbivores, they can serve as biological control agents. The association of flies with animal carcasses in aquatic environments provides an additional set of tools for forensic science. The extremophilic attributes of numerous species of Diptera offer solutions for human adaptation to harsh terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments. The potential pharmaceutical and industrial applications of the symbiotic microbial community in extremophilic Diptera are better explored than are those of dipteran chemistry. Many flies provide valuable ecological and human services as aquatic immatures, but are also pests and vectors of disease agents as terrestrial adults. The scientific community, thus, is challenged with balancing the benefits and costs of aquatic Diptera, while maintaining sustainable populations as more species face extinction.
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Adler PH, Kúdelová T, Kúdela M, Seitz G, Ignjatović-Ćupina A. Cryptic Biodiversity and the Origins of Pest Status Revealed in the Macrogenome of Simulium colombaschense (Diptera: Simuliidae), History's Most Destructive Black Fly. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0147673. [PMID: 26808274 PMCID: PMC4726606 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2015] [Accepted: 01/06/2016] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
The European black fly Simulium (Simulium) colombaschense (Scopoli), once responsible for as many as 22,000 livestock deaths per year, is chromosomally mapped, permitting its evolutionary relationships and pest drivers to be inferred. The species is 12 fixed inversions removed from the standard sequence of the subgenus Simulium. Three of these fixed inversions, 38 autosomal polymorphisms, and a complex set of 12 X and 6 Y chromosomes in 29 zygotic combinations uniquely characterize S. colombaschense and reveal 5 cytoforms: 'A' in the Danube watershed, 'B' in Italy's Adige River, 'C' in the Aliakmonas River of Greece, 'D' in the Aoös drainage in Greece, and 'E' in the Belá River of Slovakia. 'C' and 'D' are reproductively isolated from one another, and 'B' is considered a cytotype of 'A,' the probable name bearer of colombaschense. The species status of 'E' cannot be determined without additional collections. Three derived polytene sequences, based on outgroup comparisons, place S. colombaschense in a clade of species composed of the S. jenningsi, S. malyschevi, and S. reptans species groups. Only cytoforms 'A' and 'B' are pests. Within the Simuliidae, pest status is reached through one of two principal pathways, both of which promote the production of large populations of blood-seeking flies: (1) colonization of the world's largest rivers (habitat specialization) or (2) colonization of multiple habitat types (habitat generalization). Evolutionary acquisition of the ability to colonize large rivers by an ancestor of the S. jenningsi-malyschevi-reptans clade set the scene for the pest status of S. colombaschense and other big-river members of the clade. In an ironic twist, the macrogenome of S. colombaschense reveals that the name associated with history's worst simuliid pest represents a complex of species, two or more of which are nonpests potentially vulnerable to loss of their limited habitat.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter H. Adler
- Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, United States of America
| | - Tatiana Kúdelová
- Department of Zoology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Matúš Kúdela
- Department of Zoology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Gunther Seitz
- District Government of Lower Bavaria, Landshut, Germany
| | - Aleksandra Ignjatović-Ćupina
- Department for Environmental and Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
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Hartmann EM, Durighello E, Pible O, Nogales B, Beltrametti F, Bosch R, Christie-Oleza JA, Armengaud J. Proteomics meets blue biotechnology: a wealth of novelties and opportunities. Mar Genomics 2014; 17:35-42. [PMID: 24780860 DOI: 10.1016/j.margen.2014.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2014] [Revised: 04/11/2014] [Accepted: 04/12/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Blue biotechnology, in which aquatic environments provide the inspiration for various products such as food additives, aquaculture, biosensors, green chemistry, bioenergy, and pharmaceuticals, holds enormous promise. Large-scale efforts to sequence aquatic genomes and metagenomes, as well as campaigns to isolate new organisms and culture-based screenings, are helping to push the boundaries of known organisms. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics can complement 16S gene sequencing in the effort to discover new organisms of potential relevance to blue biotechnology by facilitating the rapid screening of microbial isolates and by providing in depth profiles of the proteomes and metaproteomes of marine organisms, both model cultivable isolates and, more recently, exotic non-cultivable species and communities. Proteomics has already contributed to blue biotechnology by identifying aquatic proteins with potential applications to food fermentation, the textile industry, and biomedical drug development. In this review, we discuss historical developments in blue biotechnology, the current limitations to the known marine biosphere, and the ways in which mass spectrometry can expand that knowledge. We further speculate about directions that research in blue biotechnology will take given current and near-future technological advancements in mass spectrometry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erica M Hartmann
- CEA, DSV, IBEB, Lab Biochim System Perturb, Bagnols-sur-Cèze, F-30207, France
| | - Emie Durighello
- CEA, DSV, IBEB, Lab Biochim System Perturb, Bagnols-sur-Cèze, F-30207, France
| | - Olivier Pible
- CEA, DSV, IBEB, Lab Biochim System Perturb, Bagnols-sur-Cèze, F-30207, France
| | - Balbina Nogales
- Microbiologia, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
| | | | - Rafael Bosch
- Microbiologia, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
| | - Joseph A Christie-Oleza
- School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV47AL, United Kingdom
| | - Jean Armengaud
- CEA, DSV, IBEB, Lab Biochim System Perturb, Bagnols-sur-Cèze, F-30207, France.
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