HSP70 genes and historecognition in Botryllus schlosseri: implications for MHC evolution

The colonial protochordate Botryllus schlosseri possesses a historecognition system which has long invited comparison to the vertebrate MHC. Upon contact, colonies either fuse or reject one another in a manner resembling graft acceptance or rejection in vertebrates. This response is controlled by a single highly polymorphic genetic region, the FuHC locus. Colonial protochordates such as B. schlosseri are among the closest relatives of the vertebrate lineage, and therefore may possess a recognizable MHC homologue. Since linkage between heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) genes and MHC appears to be conserved within the vertebrate lineage, we have analyzed HSP70 genes from B. schlosseri as a first step toward isolating the historecognition locus. Two HSP70 genes (HSP70.1 and HSP70.2) have been cloned and sequenced, and exhibit 93.6% sequence identity within the predicted coding regions. The B. schlosseri genes share a number of characteristics with vertebrate MHC-linked HSP70 genes: Northern blotting and sequence analysis suggest that the protochordate genes are cytoplasmically-expressed heat-inducible members of the HSP70 gene family (FAGAN and WEISSMAN 1996). However, unlike vertebrate MHC-linked HSP70 genes, HSP70.1 and HSP70.2 are not closely linked (FAGAN and WEISSMAN 1997). Furthermore, neither is closely linked to the locus determining historecognition (FAGAN and WEISSMAN 1997). These results do not support the hypothesis that the B. schlosseri FuHC locus is an MHC homolog. A discussion of the implications of these results for evolution of the vertebrate MHC is included.