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Spectral Diversity of Fluorescent Proteins from the Anthozoan Corynactis californica

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Abstract

Color morphs of the temperate, nonsymbiotic corallimorpharian Corynactis californica show variation in pigment pattern and coloring. We collected seven distinct color morphs of C. californica from subtidal locations in Monterey Bay, California, and found that tissue– and color–morph-specific expression of at least six different genes is responsible for this variation. Each morph contains at least three to four distinct genetic loci that code for these colors, and one morph contains at least five loci. These genes encode a subfamily of new GFP-like proteins, which fluoresce across the visible spectrum from green to red, while sharing between 75% to 89% pairwise amino-acid identity. Biophysical characterization reveals interesting spectral properties, including a bright yellow protein, an orange protein, and a red protein exhibiting a “fluorescent timer” phenotype. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the FP genes from this species evolved together but that diversification of anthozoan fluorescent proteins has taken place outside of phylogenetic constraints, especially within the Corallimorpharia. The discovery of more examples of fluorescent proteins in a non-bioluminescent, nonsymbiotic anthozoan highlights possibilities of adaptive ecological significance unrelated to light regulation for algal symbionts. The patterns and colors of fluorescent proteins in C. californica and similar species may hold meaning for organisms that possess the visual pigments to distinguish them.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Laura Figoski (MBARI) and Maureen Downing (University of Chicago) for help with expression and purification of the FPs; Denis Klimov, Zbigniew Kolber, and Ken Johnson from MBARI and Keith Moffatt from University of Chicago provided equipment used in spectroscopic quantification; the authors also thank Kenneth Coale and Jon Geller of MLML for academic support and Jason Felton for assistance in the field; Mike Lassner, Claus Krebber, and Steve Bass from Maxygen for their enthusiastic support during the initial stages of this project; and two anonymous reviewers for insightful comments that improved the manuscript. Supported in part by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

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  1. Christine E. Schnitzler

    Present address: Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Rd, Moss Landing, CA, 95039, USA

    Christine E. Schnitzler, Lynne M. Christianson & Steven H. D. Haddock

  2. Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Moss Landing, CA, 95039, USA

    Christine E. Schnitzler

  3. Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Robert J. Keenan & Artur Matysik

  4. Maxygen Inc., Redwood City, CA, 94063, USA

    Robert McCord

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  1. Christine E. Schnitzler
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Correspondence to Robert J. Keenan or Steven H. D. Haddock.

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Christine E. Schnitzler and Robert J. Keenan contributed equally to this work.

Data deposition footnote: The GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank) accession numbers for the genes and gene products discussed in this paper are: ccalRFP1 (AY823226); ccalYFP1 (AY823227); ccalRFP2 (DQ065851); ccalGFP1 (DQ065852); ccalOFP1 (DQ065853); ccalGFP3 (DQ899732)

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Schnitzler, C.E., Keenan, R.J., McCord, R. et al. Spectral Diversity of Fluorescent Proteins from the Anthozoan Corynactis californica . Mar Biotechnol 10, 328–342 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-007-9072-7

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