Over millions of years of evolution, distantly
related species such as dolphins, seals and manatees made the move from
terrestrial environments to water, in the process undergoing extraordinary
changes in physiology and physical abilities. These mammals acquired limbs
adapted to swimming, an enhanced capacity to store and transport oxygen to
enable underwater foraging and decreased bone density - changes that occurred
independently in each species through convergent evolution.
Characterizing the underlying molecular landscape
of these evolutionary adaptations could now become simpler thanks to the
proteomes of twelve new marine mammal species available in the latest UniProt
release. This diverse group includes cetaceans, the most aquatically adapted
set comprising whales and dolphins, sirenians, the herbivorous sea cows,
pinnipeds, the carnivorous seals and walruses as well as partially marine
species such as the polar bear and sea otter.
Some of these species, Weddell seals in particular,
are known to dive deep and remain underwater for extended periods depriving
vital organs of oxygen without causing organ damage, a feat impossible for most
land-based animals. This phenomenon is not unlike the hypoxia
experienced by humans during a heart attack or stroke that when followed by
reoxygenation, often leads to permanent organ damage or even death. Ongoing
studies focused on a number of different marine and non-marine species have the
potential to identify therapeutic targets to alleviate injury sustained during
heart attacks and strokes (Ref 1). Dr. Benjamin Neely, at the Marine
Biochemical Sciences group at NIST Charleston working alongside academics and
veterinarians, is compiling blood proteomes from over 70 different species,
including many marine mammals, as part of the Comparative Mammal Proteome
Aggregator Resource (Ref 2). ‘The availability of these proteomes in UniProtKB
alongside their terrestrial relatives will aid us greatly in this endeavour’ he
says. ‘Improving our understanding of advantageous biological adaptations will
facilitate biomimetic studies’. Due to the high degree of homology within
mammalian species, insights gleaned from comparative proteomics are likely
applicable to humans.
Comparative studies are also important for probing
the challenges faced by these often protected species and in understanding the
conflicts with human uses of shared environments. Major changes in the
abundance of whales and and other marine species in the last few years have
been linked to similar changes in commercial fishing practices worldwide.
Research into marine mammal conservation thus also has the potential to impact
fisheries and coastal communities around the world.
The UniProt Proteomes
portal supports searching by free text (scientific or common name) and search
results can be filtered using the options on the panel to the left (Fig 3).
We hope that the inclusion of these proteomes into
UniProt will improve utilization of proteomic tools by biomedical researchers,
evolutionary biologists and conservationists alike, help address some
foundational questions and accelerate biomedical discoveries.
References
- Sobolesky P, Parry C, Boxall
B, Wells R, Venn-Watson S, Janech MG. Proteomic
Analysis of Non-depleted Serum Proteins from Bottlenose Dolphins Uncovers a High
Vanin-1 Phenotype. Sci Rep. 2016 Sep 26;6:33879. - https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/comparative-mammalian-proteome-aggregator-resource-compare-program
