Abstract
BackgroundVertebrates use different pigmentation strategies to adapt to various environments. A large amount of research has been done on disclosing the mechanisms of pigmentation strategies in vertebrates either under light, or, living in constant darkness. However, less attention has been paid to non-obligate, darkness dwellers. Red-spotted toothed toads Oreolalax rhodostigmatus (Megophryidae; Anura) from the karst mountainous region of southwestern China are non-obligate cave dwellers. Most tadpoles of the species possess transparent skin as they inhabit the dark karst caves. But remarkably, the transparent tadpoles can darken just within 15 h once exposed to light. Obviously, it is very significant to reveal molecular mechanisms of the unexpected rapid-darkening phenomenon.ResultsWe compared the transcriptomes of O. rhodostigmatus tadpoles with different durations of light exposure to investigate the cellular processes and potential regulation signals for their light-induced rapid darkening. Genes involved in melanogenesis (i.e. TYR, TYRP1 and DCT) and melanocyte proliferation, as well as their transcriptional factor (MITF), showed light-induced transcription, suggesting a dominating role of morphological color change (MCC) in this process. Transcription of genes related to growth factor, MAPK and PI3K-Akt pathways increased with time of light exposure, suggesting that light could induce significant growth signal, which might facilitate the rapid skin darkening. Most importantly, an in-frame deletion of four residues was identified in O. rhodostigmatus melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), a critical receptor in MCC. This deletion results in a more negatively charged ligand pocket with three stereo-tandem aspartate residues. Such structural changes likely decrease the constitutive activity of MC1R, but increase its ligands-dependent activity, thus coordinating pigment regression and rapid melanogenesis in the dark and light, respectively.ConclusionOur study suggested that rapid MCC was responsible for the light-induced rapid darkening of O. rhodostigmatus tadpoles. Genetic mutations of MC1R in them could explain how these non-obligate cave dwellers coordinate pigment regression and robust melanogenesis in darkness and light, respectively. To our knowledge, this is the first study that reports the association between pigmentation phenotype adaptation and MC1R mutations in amphibians and/or in non-obligate cave dwellers.
Highlights
Vertebrates use different pigmentation strategies to adapt to various environments
Molecular processes involved in light-induced rapid skin darkening Though the genes involved in synthesis of melanin, carotenoids and pteridines are all transcribed in O. rhodostigmatus tadpoles, only melanin-related genes showed increased transcription with light exposure (Fig. 2)
We found that the melanocyte morphological color change (MCC) was responsible for the rapid skin darkening in O. rhodostigmatus tadpoles
Summary
Vertebrates use different pigmentation strategies to adapt to various environments. A large amount of research has been done on disclosing the mechanisms of pigmentation strategies in vertebrates either under light, or, living in constant darkness. For species living in constant darkness (i.e. inside the caves), pigment regression is a common survival strategy [7,8,9,10,11,12], as pigmentation can be resource-consuming [13] In these animals, the capacity to generate pigmentation is completely or partly lost [8,9,10,11,12]. The capacity to generate pigmentation is completely or partly lost [8,9,10,11,12] Beside these two well-studied categories, there is the third category of animals, who may experience both dark and light conditions in their life histories (i.e. non-obligate cave dwellers).
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