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The Gluopsins: Opsins without the Retinal Binding Lysine.

Martin Gühmann1, Megan L Porter2, Michael J Bok3

  • 1School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.

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|August 12, 2022
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Summary

Researchers discovered novel opsins, termed gluopsins, that have lost a key lysine residue essential for light detection. These gluopsins, found in insects, may have alternative functions beyond photoreception, expanding our understanding of opsin evolution.

Keywords:
G-protein-coupled receptorchemoreceptordata miningevolutionopsinphotoisomerasephylogenyretinal binding site

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Biochemistry

Background:

  • Opsins are G-protein-coupled receptors crucial for vision, typically binding retinal via a conserved lysine residue.
  • This conserved lysine is a defining feature for opsin identification and phylogenetic analysis.
  • Recent findings suggest some opsins function as chemoreceptors, where the lysine is not essential.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the existence of opsins that have lost the conserved lysine residue during evolution.
  • To construct a comprehensive opsin phylogeny to identify such divergent opsins.

Main Methods:

  • Development of an automated pipeline for compiling, aligning, and reconstructing large-scale opsin phylogenies.
  • Phylogenetic analysis of public sequence data to identify opsin clades.
  • Sequence analysis to characterize conserved motifs and identify lysine replacements.

Main Results:

  • Construction of the largest opsin phylogeny to date, encompassing 4956 opsin sequences.
  • Identification of a novel clade of 33 opsins, named 'gluopsins', characterized by glutamic acid replacing the conserved lysine.
  • Gluopsins are predominantly found in dragonflies and butterflies and are phylogenetically related to RGR-opsins and retinochromes, sharing a derived NPxxY motif.

Conclusions:

  • The discovery of gluopsins challenges the traditional definition of opsins based on the conserved lysine.
  • Gluopsins represent a significant evolutionary divergence, suggesting potential non-photoreceptive functions.
  • Further research is needed to elucidate the specific functions of these newly identified gluopsins.