Le Goff, E.; Martinand-Mari, C.; Belkhir, K.; Vacelet, J.; Nidelet, S.; Godefroy, N.; Baghdiguian, S.
2022
Molecular complexity and gene expression controlling cell turnover during a digestive cycle of carnivorous sponge <i>Lycopodina hypogea</i>
Cell and Tissue Research
388(2): 399-416
Publication
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Lycopodina hypogea is a carnivorous sponge that tolerates laboratory husbandry very well. During a digestion cycle, per?formed without any digestive cavity, this species undergoes spectacular morphological changes leading to a total regres?sion of long flaments that ensure the capture of prey and their reformation at the end of the cycle. This phenomenon is a unique opportunity to analyze the molecular and cellular determinants that ensure digestion in the sister group of all other metazoans. Using diferential transcriptomic analysis coupled with cell biology studies of proliferation, diferentiation, and programmed cell deaths (i.e., autophagy and the destructive/constructive function of apoptosis), we demonstrate that the molecular and cellular actors that ensure digestive homeostasis in a sister group of all remaining animals are similar in variety and complexity to those controlling tissue homeostasis in higher vertebrates. During a digestion cycle, most of these actors are fnely tuned in a coordinated manner. Our data benefts from complementary approaches coupling in silico and cell biology studies and demonstrate that the nutritive function is provided by the coordination of molecular network that impacts the cells turnover in the entire organism
