The Premetazoan Ancestry of Cadherins

Cadherin-mediated cell adhesion and signaling is essential for metazoan development and yet is absent from all other multicellular organisms. We found cadherin genes at numbers similar to those observed in complex metazoans in one of the closest single-celled relatives of metazoans, the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis. Because the evolution of metazoans from a single-celled ancestor required novel cell adhesion and signaling mechanisms, the discovery of diverse cadherins in choanoflagellates suggests that cadherins may have contributed to metazoan origins.

[1]  S. Carroll,et al.  Evolution of Key Cell Signaling and Adhesion Protein Families Predates Animal Origins , 2003, Science.

[2]  R. Carthew,et al.  Adhesion proteins and the control of cell shape. , 2005, Current opinion in genetics & development.

[3]  T. Miyata,et al.  Functional development of Src tyrosine kinases during evolution from a unicellular ancestor to multicellular animals , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[4]  Elaine Fuchs,et al.  Intercellular adhesion, signalling and the cytoskeleton , 2002, Nature Cell Biology.

[5]  M. Takeichi,et al.  New insights into Fat cadherins , 2005, Journal of Cell Science.

[6]  N. King,et al.  The unicellular ancestry of animal development. , 2004, Developmental cell.

[7]  B. Finlay,et al.  Bacterial pathogenesis: exploiting cellular adherence. , 2003, Current opinion in cell biology.

[8]  M. S. Steinberg,et al.  Cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion and tissue segregation in relation to malignancy. , 2004, The International journal of developmental biology.

[9]  B. Lang,et al.  Mitochondrial genomes of two demosponges provide insights into an early stage of animal evolution. , 2005, Molecular biology and evolution.

[10]  T. Pawson,et al.  Requirement of Nck adaptors for actin dynamics and cell migration stimulated by platelet-derived growth factor B. , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[11]  J. Gerhart,et al.  1998 Warkany lecture: signaling pathways in development. , 1999, Teratology.

[12]  Elaine Fuchs,et al.  Sticky Business Orchestrating Cellular Signals at Adherens Junctions , 2003, Cell.

[13]  Tony Pawson,et al.  Nck adaptor proteins link nephrin to the actin cytoskeleton of kidney podocytes , 2006, Nature.

[14]  W. Nelson,et al.  Cadherins in development: cell adhesion, sorting, and tissue morphogenesis. , 2006, Genes & development.

[15]  N. M. Brooke,et al.  The evolution of multicellularity and early animal genomes. , 2003, Current opinion in genetics & development.

[16]  Tony Pawson,et al.  Structure and function of SH2 domains , 1994, Journal of Cell Science.

[17]  Peer Bork,et al.  SMART 5: domains in the context of genomes and networks , 2005, Nucleic Acids Res..

[18]  P. Holland,et al.  Buddenbrockia Is a Cnidarian Worm , 2007, Science.

[19]  S. Carroll,et al.  Animal Evolution and the Molecular Signature of Radiations Compressed in Time , 2005, Science.

[20]  R. Nusse,et al.  Convergence of Wnt, ß-Catenin, and Cadherin Pathways , 2004, Science.

[21]  B. Gumbiner,et al.  Regulation of cadherin-mediated adhesion in morphogenesis , 2005, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology.

[22]  D. Hibberd.  Observations on the ultrastructure of the choanoflagellate Codosiga botrytis (Ehr.) Saville-Kent with special reference to the flagellar apparatus. , 1975, Journal of cell science.

[23]  R. Kemler.  From cadherins to catenins: cytoplasmic protein interactions and regulation of cell adhesion. , 1993, Trends in genetics : TIG.

[24]  B. Gumbiner,et al.  Regulation of Cadherin Adhesive Activity , 2000, The Journal of cell biology.

[25]  Keith R. Johnson,et al.  Cadherin-mediated cellular signaling. , 2003, Current opinion in cell biology.

[26]  S. Tyler.  Epithelium—The Primary Building Block for Metazoan Complexity1 , 2003, Integrative and comparative biology.

[27]  S. Baldauf,et al.  The protistan origins of animals and fungi. , 2006, Molecular biology and evolution.

[28]  Mark Q. Martindale,et al.  The evolutionary origin of hedgehog proteins , 2007, Current Biology.

[29]  P. Cossart,et al.  E-Cadherin Is the Receptor for Internalin, a Surface Protein Required for Entry of L. monocytogenes into Epithelial Cells , 1996, Cell.

[30]  B. Lang,et al.  Unique mitochondrial genome architecture in unicellular relatives of animals , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[31]  J. Gershoni,et al.  Flamingo cadherin: a putative host receptor for Streptococcus pneumoniae. , 2007, The Journal of infectious diseases.

[32]  Todd H. Oakley,et al.  A Post-Synaptic Scaffold at the Origin of the Animal Kingdom , 2007, PloS one.