Meeting Abstract
Insulin is an evolutionarily important hormone with diverse roles in metabolism, cellular growth, development, and longevity in metazoans. While the pleiotropic roles of the insulin pathway are believed to have evolved early on within Metazoa, little is known about its structure and function in non-bilaterians. Putative insulin-like peptides and their corresponding receptors have been identified in just a few species of the non-bilaterian phyla Placozoa, Ctenophora, Porifera, and Cnidaria. However, the potential function of the insulin pathway in symbiosis regulation and/or stress response are of particular significance in Cnidarians due to the economic and ecological importance of reef-building corals. We performed a comparative transcriptomics analysis on 90 Cnidarian transcriptomes including 64 Anthozoan, 15 Hydrozoan, 5 Scyphozoan, 3 Cubozoan, and 3 Myxosporean transcriptomes. A further 37 of the 64 Anthozoan transcriptomes were from the class Scleractinia, which encompasses the major reef-building corals. We investigate the phylogenetic placement of the identified Cnidarian insulin-like peptides and their receptors within Metazoa. Further, we characterize their structure and evaluate their diversity throughout the different Classes within Cnidaria. This study greatly expands our understanding of not only the prevalence but also the diversity of insulin-like peptides and their receptor within Cnidaria.
