Marine animals, such as the extremely simple flatworm Trichoplax, are ideal model organisms for studying the early evolutionary origins of animal life processes.
Marine animals, such as the extremely simple flatworm Trichoplax, are ideal model organisms for studying the early evolutionary origins of animal life processes. Despite measuring only a few millimetres and lacking true organs or nervous system, this animal interacts effectively with bacteria. A highly efficient enzyme, goose-type lysozyme (PLys, GH23), plays a key role in this process. Trichoplax uses this enzyme specifically during digestion to degrade bacterial cell walls and neutralize ingested bacteria.
Researchers at the Zoological Institute of Kiel University (CAU) have now shown for the first time that this lysozyme is highly active and widely used by animals. Additionally, they traced the evolutionary origin of this enzyme. These important G-type lysozymes, which humans also process in two copies, originally came from bacteria. They were transferred to early animal ancestors through horizontal gene transfer, the inheritance of genes between unrelated organisms and further evolved. This indicates that this antibacterial mechanism appeared much earlier in the animal family tree than previously assumed. The study offering a new perspective on the early development of animal defence mechanisms, was published in the journal Communications Biology.
Read more at: Kiel University
