Quantitative insights into the contribution of nematocysts to the adaptive success of cnidarians based on proteomic analysis

Nematocysts are secretory organelles in cnidarians that play important roles in predation, defense, locomotion, and host invasion. However, the extent to which nematocysts contribute to adaptation and the mechanisms underlying nematocyst evolution is unclear. Here, we investigated the role of the nematocyst in cnidarian evolution based on 8 nematocyst proteomes and 110 cnidarian transcriptomes/genomes. We detected extensive species-specific adaptative mutations in nematocyst proteins (NEMs) and evidence for decentralized evolution, in which most evolutionary events involved non-core NEMs, reflecting the rapid diversification of NEMs in cnidarians. Moreover, there was a 33–55 million year macroevolutionary lag between nematocyst evolution and the main phases of cnidarian diversification, suggesting that the nematocyst can act as a driving force in evolution. Quantitative analysis revealed an excess of adaptive changes in NEMs and enrichment for positively selected conserved NEMs. Together, these findings suggest that nematocyst may be key to the adaptive success of cnidarians and provide a reference for quantitative analyses of the roles of phenotypic novelties in adaptation.