Regulation of Green Fluorescent Proteins by Sea Anemones (Anthopleura spp.) in Response to Light

Green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) are a family of proteins with a disjunct systematic distribution; their biological functions remain speculative for the most part. Here, we report studies of three closely related species of green sea anemones (Anthopleura) that express GFPs throughout their ectoderm. Individuals of these species maintain facultative symbiosis with zooxanthellae in their endoderm and inhabit the rocky intertidal or shallow subtidal. Thus, they depend on exposure to light to maintain photosynthesis of their symbionts and simultaneously need to manage stresses associated with this exposure. We present experimental evidence that these sea anemones regulate the amount of GFP in their bodies in response to the surrounding light environment: they increase or reduce GFP when exposed to brighter or dimmer light, respectively, yet they maintain some GFP while in darkness for surprisingly long periods.