Cardiopharyngeal deconstruction and ancestral tunicate sessility

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 599; no. 7885; pp. 431 - 435
• Main Authors: Ferrández-Roldán, Alfonso, Fabregà-Torrus, Marc, Sánchez-Serna, Gaspar, Duran-Bello, Enya, Joaquín-Lluís, Martí, Bujosa, Paula, Plana-Carmona, Marcos, Garcia-Fernàndez, Jordi, Albalat, Ricard, Cañestro, Cristian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 18-11-2021; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 14/19; 38; 38/32; 631/136/334/2246; 631/181/2806; 631/208/199; 64; Adaptation; Animals; Ascidiacea; Biological Evolution; Biological research; Biology, Experimental; Cell Lineage; Deconstruction; Ecological adaptation; Evolution; Gene Regulatory Networks; Genes; Heart; Heart - anatomy & histology; Heart - growth & development; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hypotheses; Locomotion; Modules; multidisciplinary; Muscles; Myocardium - cytology; Myocardium - metabolism; Nervous system; Physiological aspects; Redesign; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Urochordata - anatomy & histology; Urochordata - cytology; Urochordata - genetics; Urochordata - physiology; Vertebrates; Spain
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04041-w

A central question in chordate evolution is the origin of sessility in adult ascidians, and whether the appendicularian complete free-living style represents a primitive or derived condition among tunicates
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. According to the ‘a new heart for a new head’ hypothesis, the evolution of the cardiopharyngeal gene regulatory network appears as a pivotal aspect to understand the evolution of the lifestyles of chordates
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. Here we show that appendicularians experienced massive ancestral losses of cardiopharyngeal genes and subfunctions, leading to the ‘deconstruction’ of two ancestral modules of the tunicate cardiopharyngeal gene regulatory network. In ascidians, these modules are related to early and late multipotency, which is involved in lineage cell-fate determination towards the first and second heart fields and siphon muscles. Our work shows that the deconstruction of the cardiopharyngeal gene regulatory network involved the regressive loss of the siphon muscle, supporting an evolutionary scenario in which ancestral tunicates had a sessile ascidian-like adult lifestyle. In agreement with this scenario, our findings also suggest that this deconstruction contributed to the acceleration of cardiogenesis and the redesign of the heart into an open-wide laminar structure in appendicularians as evolutionary adaptations during their transition to a complete pelagic free-living style upon the innovation of the food-filtering house
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The heart of appendicularians has evolved by 'deconstructing' an ancestral ascidian-like gene regulatory network.