Abramyan John, Li Gengxin, Khansa Hannah
Department of Natural Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn, 4901 Evergreen Rd., Dearborn, MI, 48128, USA.
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Michigan-Dearborn, 4901 Evergreen Rd., Dearborn, MI, 48128, USA.
J Mol Evol. 2025 Aug 7. doi: 10.1007/s00239-025-10258-4.
In most vertebrates, teeth are continuously shed and replaced throughout life, while mammals and several lineages of reptiles have reduced replacement to only one or two generations. In contrast to the vast majority of their living relatives, members of the lizard families Chamaeleonidae and Agamidae have dispensed with lifelong tooth replacement, instead developing acrodont dentition that fuses to the jawbone to be used for the lifetime of the animal. Though, the loss of tooth replacement has not come without a cost. In order to mitigate the consequences that come with tooth replacement loss, mammals and acrodont lizards have evolved adaptations that strengthen enamel structure and minimize wear and tear experienced during the life of the animal. While these physical adaptations are well documented, the effect that loss of tooth replacement has had on the molecular components of teeth has not received significant attention. Here, we analyze the coding and amino acid sequences of six tooth proteins (AMBN, AMEL, AMTN, ACP4, ENAM, and MMP20) from acrodont lizards, pleurodont lizards that replace teeth, and mammals. We show that the reduction of tooth generations has disproportionately affected the evolutionary trajectory of proteins associated with enamel structure, with a particularly magnified effect on the evolution of AMEL.
在大多数脊椎动物中,牙齿在其一生中会不断脱落并替换,而哺乳动物和一些爬行动物谱系的牙齿替换已减少到仅一代或两代。与绝大多数现存的亲属不同,变色龙科和鬣蜥科蜥蜴的成员已经摒弃了终身牙齿替换的方式,而是进化出了端生齿,这种牙齿与颌骨融合,可供动物终身使用。然而,失去牙齿替换并非没有代价。为了减轻牙齿替换丧失带来的后果,哺乳动物和端生齿蜥蜴已经进化出了一些适应性特征,这些特征强化了牙釉质结构,并使动物在生命过程中所经历的磨损最小化。虽然这些生理适应性特征已有充分记录,但牙齿替换丧失对牙齿分子成分的影响却未得到足够关注。在此,我们分析了端生齿蜥蜴、替换牙齿的侧生齿蜥蜴以及哺乳动物的六种牙齿蛋白(釉基质蛋白、釉原蛋白、釉成熟蛋白、牙本质酸性磷酸酶4、釉蛋白和基质金属蛋白酶20)的编码和氨基酸序列。我们发现,牙齿替换代数的减少对与牙釉质结构相关蛋白质的进化轨迹产生了不成比例的影响,对釉原蛋白的进化影响尤为显著。
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