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An aphrodisiac produced by Vibrio fischeri stimulates mating in the closest living relatives of animals

Arielle Woznica, Joseph P Gerdt, Ryan E. Hulett, Jon Clardy, View ORCID ProfileNicole King
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/139022
Arielle Woznica
aHoward Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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Joseph P Gerdt
bDepartment of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston MA 02115, United States
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Ryan E. Hulett
aHoward Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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Jon Clardy
bDepartment of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston MA 02115, United States
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  • For correspondence: jon_clardy@hms.harvard.edu nking@berkeley.edu
Nicole King
aHoward Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
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  • ORCID record for Nicole King
  • For correspondence: jon_clardy@hms.harvard.edu nking@berkeley.edu
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Abstract

We serendipitously discovered that the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri induces sexual reproduction in one of the closest living relatives of animals, the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta. Although bacteria influence everything from nutrition and metabolism to cell biology and development in eukaryotes, bacterial regulation of eukaryotic mating was unexpected. Here we show that a single V. fischeri protein, the previously uncharacterized EroS, fully recapitulates the aphrodisiac activity of live V. fischeri. EroS is a chondroitin lyase; although its substrate, chondroitin sulfate, was previously thought to be an animal synapomorphy, we demonstrate that S. rosetta produces chondroitin sulfate and thus extend the ancestry of this important glycosaminoglycan to the premetazoan era. Finally, we show that V. fischeri, purified EroS, and other bacterial chondroitin lyases induce S. rosetta mating at environmentally-relevant concentrations suggesting that bacterially-produced aphrodisiacs likely regulate choanoflagellate mating in nature.

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Posted May 17, 2017.
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An aphrodisiac produced by Vibrio fischeri stimulates mating in the closest living relatives of animals
Arielle Woznica, Joseph P Gerdt, Ryan E. Hulett, Jon Clardy, Nicole King
bioRxiv 139022; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/139022
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An aphrodisiac produced by Vibrio fischeri stimulates mating in the closest living relatives of animals
Arielle Woznica, Joseph P Gerdt, Ryan E. Hulett, Jon Clardy, Nicole King
bioRxiv 139022; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/139022

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