Poster abstracts
Poster number 124 submitted by Paul Nicolosi
From fighting pathogens to respiration: insights into the functional complexity of lungless salamander mucus through multi-omic analyses
Paul Nicolosi (Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Program), Liam Johnson (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University), Damien Wilburn (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University)
Abstract:
The evolutionary transition from aquatic to terrestrial life in vertebrates necessitated numerous adaptations including changes to the skin for reduced water loss and protection from UV radiation, tactile damage, and pathogens. Amphibians serve as windows into understanding this key evolutionary transition, being near the base of the terrestrial vertebrate phylogenetic tree and having life histories that include both aquatic and land-dwelling phases. Lungless salamanders (family Plethodontidae) are especially compelling models for investigating the molecular underpinnings of these adaptations, being highly diverse, variable in their life histories, reliant on cutaneous respiration, and showing resistance to chytridiomycosis which has contributed to mass global declines in other amphibian populations. Plethodontid skin secretions have been implicated in diverse biological processes, yet its biochemical composition is uncharacterized and the molecular basis of this functionality is poorly understood. Here, we characterized plethodontid mucus by integrating quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics with long-read transcriptomic sequencing of skin samples. To identify potential functional evolution in mucous proteomes, we examined the secretions of six plethodontid species across three genera including five terrestrial ( Plethodon shermani, P. metcalfi, Desmognathus ocoee, D. wrighti, Eurycea guttolineata ) and one aquatic species ( D. amphileucus ). Many of the mucous proteins identified belonged to families with functions associated with respiration, diffusion, immunity, and chemical signaling. These functional candidates may have biomedical uses such as extrapulmonary oxygenation of tissues for transplantation and developing treatments for human fungal pathogens. Further, our integrative workflow serves as a powerful tool for deep characterization of molecular biology in non-model systems lacking genomic references.
Keywords: Proteomics, Transcriptomics, Evolution