Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
Open Biol. 2024 Jul;14(7):240092. doi: 10.1098/rsob.240092. Epub 2024 Jul 24.
Magnetoreceptive biology as a field remains relatively obscure; compared with the breadth of species believed to sense magnetic fields, it remains under-studied. Here, we present grounds for the expansion of magnetoreception studies among teleosts. We begin with the electromagnetic perceptive gene (EPG) from and expand to identify 72 teleosts with homologous proteins containing a conserved three-phenylalanine (3F) motif. Phylogenetic analysis provides insight as to how EPG may have evolved over time and indicates that certain clades may have experienced a loss of function driven by different fitness pressures. One potential factor is water type with freshwater fish significantly more likely to possess the functional motif version (FFF), and saltwater fish to have the non-functional variant (FXF). It was also revealed that when the 3F motif from the homologue of (B.g.) is inserted into EPG-EPG(B.g.)-the response (as indicated by increased intracellular calcium) is faster. This indicates that EPG has the potential to be engineered to improve upon its response and increase its utility to be used as a controller for specific outcomes.
磁感受生物学作为一个领域仍然相对不为人知；与被认为能够感知磁场的物种的广泛性相比，它的研究还不够充分。在这里，我们提出了在硬骨鱼类中扩展磁受体研究的理由。我们从电磁感知基因 (EPG) 开始，并扩展到鉴定出 72 种具有同源蛋白的硬骨鱼类，这些蛋白含有保守的三苯丙氨酸 (3F) 基序。系统发育分析提供了有关 EPG 如何随时间演变的见解，并表明某些进化枝可能由于不同的适应压力而经历了功能丧失。一个潜在的因素是水的类型，淡水鱼更有可能拥有功能性基序（FFF）版本，而咸水鱼则具有非功能性变体（FXF）。还揭示了当 3F 基序从同源物 (B.g.) 插入 EPG-EPG(B.g.) 时，反应（如细胞内钙增加所表明的）更快。这表明 EPG 有可能被设计改进其反应，并增加其作为特定结果控制器的用途。
