Elucidating the functional evolution of heat sensors among Xenopus species adapted to different thermal niches by ancestral sequence reconstruction

Ambient temperature fluctuations are detected via the thermosensory system which allows animals to seek preferable thermal conditions or escape from harmful temperatures. Evolutionary changes in thermal perception have thus potentially played crucial roles in niche selection. The genus Xenopus (clawed frog) is suitable for investigating the relationship between thermal perception and niche selection due to their diverse latitudinal and altitudinal distributions. Here we performed comparative analyses of the neuronal heat sensors TRPV1 and TRPA1 among closely related Xenopus species (X. borealis, X. muelleri, X. laevis, and X. tropicalis) to elucidate their functional evolution and to assess whether their functional differences correlate with thermal niche selection among the species. Comparison of TRPV1 among four extant Xenopus species and reconstruction of the ancestral TRPV1 revealed that TRPV1 responses to repeated heat stimulation were specifically altered in the lineage leading to...

环境温度波动通过温度感知系统被检测，该系统使动物能够寻找适宜的热环境或逃离有害温度。因此，热感知的演化变化可能在生态位选择中发挥了关键作用。爪蟾属（Xenopus，俗称爪蛙）因其多样的纬度和海拔分布，非常适合用于研究热感知与生态位选择之间的关系。本研究对亲缘关系较近的爪蟾物种（北方爪蟾X. borealis、穆勒爪蟾X. muelleri、非洲爪蟾X. laevis及热带爪蟾X. tropicalis）的神经元热传感器TRPV1和TRPA1进行了比较分析，旨在阐明其功能演化，并评估这些功能差异是否与物种间的热生态位选择相关。对四种现存爪蟾物种的TRPV1进行比较，并重建祖先TRPV1，结果显示：在通往...的支系中，TRPV1对重复热刺激的响应发生了特异性改变。