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Occurrence of Hemocyanin in Ostracod Crustaceans

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Abstract

Hemocyanin is a copper-containing protein that transports O2 in the hemolymph of many arthropod species. Within the crustaceans, hemocyanin appeared to be restricted to Malacostraca but has recently been identified in Remipedia. Here, we report the occurrence of hemocyanin in ostracods, indicating that this respiratory protein is more widespread within crustaceans than previously thought. By analyses of expressed sequence tags and by RT-PCR, we obtained four full length and nine partial hemocyanin sequences from six of ten investigated ostracod species. Hemocyanin was identified in Myodocopida (Actinoseta jonesi, Cypridininae sp., Euphilomedes morini, Skogsbergia lerneri, Vargula tsujii) and Platycopida (Cytherelloidea californica) but not in Podocopida. We found no evidence for the presence of hemoglobin in any of these ostracod species. Like in other arthropods, we identified multiple hemocyanin subunits (up to six) to occur in a single ostracod species. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses showed that ostracod hemocyanin subunit diversity evolved independently from that of other crustaceans. Ostracod hemocyanin subunits were found paraphyletic, with myodocopid and platycopid subunits forming distinct clades within those of the crustaceans. This pattern suggests that ostracod hemocyanins originated from distinct subunits in the pancrustacean stemline.

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Abbreviations

BPP:

Bayesian posterior probability

Hc:

Hemocyanin

MYA:

Million years ago

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Acknowledgments

We thank Janus Borner for access to the program Primerlyze, Dietmar Keyser for his help with species determination, and Elizabeth Torres for her numerous attempts to collect S. lerneri. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (BU 956/14) to TB and by the National Science Foundation (DEB-1146337) to THO.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoological Institute and Museum, University of Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Julia C. Marxen, Christian Pick & Thorsten Burmester

  2. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology (EEMB), University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    Todd H. Oakley

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  1. Julia C. Marxen
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  2. Christian Pick
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Correspondence to Julia C. Marxen.

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Marxen, J.C., Pick, C., Oakley, T.H. et al. Occurrence of Hemocyanin in Ostracod Crustaceans. J Mol Evol 79, 3–11 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-014-9636-x

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