Evolutionary conservation of complexins: from choanoflagellates to mice |
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| Authors: | Xiaofei Yang Jimin Pei Yea Jin Kaeser‐Woo Taulant Bacaj Nick V Grishin Thomas C Südhof |
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| Institution: | 1Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA;2College of Biomedical Engineering, South‐Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, China;3Department of Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA;4Picower Center for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA |
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| Abstract: | Complexins are synaptic SNARE complex‐binding proteins that cooperate with synaptotagmins in activating Ca2+‐stimulated, synaptotagmin‐dependent synaptic vesicle exocytosis and in clamping spontaneous, synaptotagmin‐independent synaptic vesicle exocytosis. Here, we show that complexin sequences are conserved in some non‐metazoan unicellular organisms and in all metazoans, suggesting that complexins are a universal feature of metazoans that predate metazoan evolution. We show that complexin from Nematostella vectensis, a cnidarian sea anemone far separated from mammals in metazoan evolution, functionally replaces mouse complexins in activating Ca2+‐triggered exocytosis, but is unable to clamp spontaneous exocytosis. Thus, the activating function of complexins is likely conserved throughout metazoan evolution. |
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| Keywords: | evolution membrane fusion SNARE proteins synapse synaptotagmin |
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