Can natural selection and druggable targets synergize? Of nutrient scarcity, cancer, and the evolution of cooperation

Since the dawn of molecular biology, cancer therapy has focused on druggable targets. Despite some remarkable successes, cell-level evolution remains a potent antagonist to this approach. We suggest that a deeper understanding of the breakdown of cooperation can synergize the evolutionary and druggable-targets approaches. Complexity requires cooperation, whether between cells of different species (symbiosis) or between cells of the same organism (multicellularity). Both forms of cooperation may be associated with nutrient scarcity, which in turn may be associated with a chemiosmotic metabolism. A variety of examples from modern organisms supports these generalities. Indeed, mammalian cancers-unicellular, glycolytic, and fast-replicating-parallel these examples. Nutrient scarcity, chemiosmosis, and associated signaling may favor cooperation, while under conditions of nutrient abundance a fermentative metabolism may signal the breakdown of cooperation. Manipulating this metabolic milieu may potentiate the effects of targeted therapeutics. Specific opportunities are discussed in this regard, including avicins, a novel plant product.

Metabolic Activation and Scaling in Two Species of Colonial Cnidarians

Metabolic activation can have a profound impact, for instance, by more than compensating for the lower resting metabolic rates of large organisms compared to smaller ones. In some animals, activity can easily be judged by the rate of muscle-driven movement. In sessile organisms, however, judging activity is less straightforward, although feeding often results in metabolic activation. Two colonial cnidarians were examined in this context, using entirely lab-grown material to remove any artifactual effects of experimental manipulations. Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus is a carnivorous hydroid that uses active muscular contractions to drive its gastrovascular fluid. Sympodium sp., on the other hand, is an octocoral that hosts photosynthetic Symbiodinium and uses cilia to propel its gastrovascular fluid. Measures of oxygen uptake indicated that feeding activated metabolism in H. symbiolongicarpus. While light treatment had no effect on subsequent dark metabolism in Sympodium sp., stress activated metabolism to an extent comparable to H. symbiolongicarpus. In both taxa, different individual size measures or synthetic size measures derived from principal component analysis produced different scaling relationships between metabolism and size. On balance, the data suggest that scaling was negatively allometric in Sympodium sp. and nearly isometric in H. symbiolongicarpus; yet metabolic activation was comparable in the two species. Regardless of the size measure used, active and resting colonies of H. symbiolongicarpus exhibited similar scaling relationships. Colonial animals may lack the large difference between resting and active metabolic rates found in highly active animals, and this may be related to how their metabolism scales with size.

Transcriptome analysis of the reef-building octocoral, Heliopora coerulea

The blue coral, Heliopora coerulea, is a reef-building octocoral that prefers shallow water and exhibits optimal growth at a temperature close to that which causes bleaching in scleractinian corals. To better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying its biology and ecology, we generated a reference transcriptome for H. coerulea using next-generation sequencing. Metatranscriptome assembly yielded 90,817 sequences of which 71% (64,610) could be annotated by comparison to public databases. The assembly included transcript sequences from both the coral host and its symbionts, which are related to the thermotolerant C3-Gulf ITS2 type Symbiodinium. Analysis of the blue coral transcriptome revealed enrichment of genes involved in stress response, including heat-shock proteins and antioxidants, as well as genes participating in signal transduction and stimulus response. Furthermore, the blue coral possesses homologs of biomineralization genes found in other corals and may use a biomineralization strategy similar to that of scleractinians to build its massive aragonite skeleton. These findings thus offer insights into the ecology of H. coerulea and suggest gene networks that may govern its interactions with its environment.

Host-microbe interactions in octocoral holobionts - recent advances and perspectives

Octocorals are one of the most ubiquitous benthic organisms in marine ecosystems from the shallow tropics to the Antarctic deep sea, providing habitat for numerous organisms as well as ecosystem services for humans. In contrast to the holobionts of reef-building scleractinian corals, the holobionts of octocorals have received relatively little attention, despite the devastating effects of disease outbreaks on many populations. Recent advances have shown that octocorals possess remarkably stable bacterial communities on geographical and temporal scales as well as under environmental stress. This may be the result of their high capacity to regulate their microbiome through the production of antimicrobial and quorum-sensing interfering compounds. Despite decades of research relating to octocoral-microbe interactions, a synthesis of this expanding field has not been conducted to date. We therefore provide an urgently needed review on our current knowledge about octocoral holobionts. Specifically, we briefly introduce the ecological role of octocorals and the concept of holobiont before providing detailed overviews of (I) the symbiosis between octocorals and the algal symbiont Symbiodinium; (II) the main fungal, viral, and bacterial taxa associated with octocorals; (III) the dominance of the microbial assemblages by a few microbial species, the stability of these associations, and their evolutionary history with the host organism; (IV) octocoral diseases; (V) how octocorals use their immune system to fight pathogens; (VI) microbiome regulation by the octocoral and its associated microbes; and (VII) the discovery of natural products with microbiome regulatory activities. Finally, we present our perspectives on how the field of octocoral research should move forward, and the recognition that these organisms may be suitable model organisms to study coral-microbe symbioses.

sAC as a model for understanding the impact of endosymbiosis on cell signaling

As signaling pathways evolve, selection for new functions guides the co-option of existing material. Major transitions in the history of life, including the evolution of eukaryotes and multicellularity, exemplify this process. These transitions provided both strong selection and a plenitude of available material for the evolution of signaling pathways. Mechanisms that evolved to mediate conflict during the evolution of eukaryotes may subsequently have been co-opted during the many independent derivations of multicellularity. The soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC) signaling pathway illustrates this hypothesis. Class III adenylyl cyclases, which include sAC, are found in bacteria, including the α-proteobacteria. These adenylyl cyclases are the only ones present in eukaryotes but appear to be absent in archaeans. This pattern suggests that the mitochondrial endosymbiosis brought sAC signaling to eukaryotes as part of an intact module. After transfer to the proto-nuclear genome, this module was then co-opted into numerous new functions. In the evolution of eukaryotes, sAC signaling may have mediated conflicts by maintaining metabolic homeostasis. In the evolution of multicellularity, in different lineages sAC may have been co-opted into parallel tasks originally related to conflict mediation. Elucidating the history of the sAC pathway may be relatively straightforward because it is ubiquitous and linked to near universal metabolic by-products (CO₂/HCO(3)(-)). Other signaling pathways (e.g., those involving STAT and VEGF) present a greater challenge but may suggest a complementary pattern. The impact of the mitochondrial endosymbiosis on cell signaling may thus have been profound. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: The role of soluble adenylyl cyclase in health and disease.