Document Type
Article
Abstract
Molluscs biomineralize structures that vary in composition, form, and function, prompting questions about the genetic mechanisms responsible for their production and the evolution of these mechanisms. Chitons (Mollusca, Polyplacophora) are a promising system for studies of biomineralization because they build a range of calcified structures including shell plates and spine- or scale-like sclerites. Chitons also harden the calcified teeth of their rasp-like radula with a coat of iron (as magnetite). Here we present the genome of the West Indian fuzzy chiton Acanthopleura granulata, the first from any aculiferan mollusc. The A. granulata genome contains homologs of many genes associated with biomineralization in conchiferan molluscs. We expected chitons to lack genes previously identified from pathways conchiferans use to make biominerals like calcite and nacre because chitons do not use these materials in their shells. Surprisingly, the A. granulata genome has homologs of many of these genes, suggesting that the ancestral mollusc may have had a more diverse biomineralization toolkit than expected. The A. granulata genome has features that may be specialized for iron biomineralization, including a higher proportion of genes regulated directly by iron than other molluscs. A. granulata also produces two isoforms of soma-like ferritin: one is regulated by iron and similar in sequence to the soma-like ferritins of other molluscs, and the other is constitutively translated and is not found in other molluscs. The A. granulata genome is a resource for future studies of molluscan evolution and biomineralization.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Publication Info
Published in Genome Biology and Evolution, Volume 13, Issue 1, 2021.
Rights
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
APA Citation
Varney, R. M., Speiser, D. I., McDougall, C., Degnan, B. M., & Kocot, K. M. (2020). The iron-responsive genome of the chiton acanthopleura granulata. Genome Biology and Evolution, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaa263