Molecular evolution of apoptotic pathways: cloning of key domains from sponges (Bcl-2 homology domains and death domains) and their phylogenetic relationships.

Cells from metazoan organisms are eliminated in a variety of physiological and pathophysiological processes by apoptosis. In this report, we describe the cloning and characterization of molecules from the marine sponges Geodia cydonium and Suberites domuncula, whose domains show a high similarity to those that are found in molecules of the vertebrate Bcl-2 superfamily and of the death receptors. The Bcl-2 proteins contain up to four Bcl-2 homology regions (BH). Two Bcl-2-related molecules have been identified from sponges that are provided with two of those regions, BH1 and BH2, and are termed Bcl-2 homology proteins (BHP). The G. cydonium molecule, BHP1_GC, has a putative size of 28,164, while the related sequence from S. domuncula, BHP1_SD, has a M(r) of 24,187. Phylogenetic analyses of the entire two sponge BHPs revealed a high similarity to members of the mammalian Bcl-2 superfamilies and to the Caenorhabditis elegans Ced-9. When the two domains, BH1 and BH2, are analyzed separately, again the highest similarity was found to the members of the Bcl-2 superfamily, but a clearly lower relationship to the C. elegans BH1 and BH2 domains in Ced-9. In unrooted phylogenetic trees the sponge BH1 and BH2 are grouped among the mammalian sequences and are only distantly related to the C. elegans BH domains. The analysis of the gene structure of the G. cydonium BHP showed that the single intron present is located within the BH2 domain at the same position as in C. elegans and rat Bcl-x(L). In addition, a sponge molecule comprising two death domains has been characterized from G. cydonium. The two death domains of the potential proapoptotic molecule GC_DD2, M(r) 24,970, share a high similarity with the Fas-FADD/MORT1 domains. A death domain-containing molecule has not been identified in the C. elegans genome. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the sponge domain originated from an ankyrin building block from which the mammalian Fas-FADD/MORT1 evolved. It is suggested that the apoptotic pathways that involve members of the Bcl-2 superfamily and of the death receptors are already present in the lowest metazoan phylum, the Porifera.