Early Divergence of the C-Terminal Variable Region of Troponin T Via a Pair of Mutually Exclusive Alternatively Spliced Exons Followed by a Selective Fixation in Vertebrate Heart.

Troponin T (TnT) is the thin filament anchoring subunit of troponin complex and plays an organizer role in the Ca2+-regulation of striated muscle contraction. From an ancestral gene emerged ~ 700 million years ago in Bilateria, three homologous genes have evolved in vertebrates to encode muscle type-specific isoforms of TnT. Alternative splicing variants of TnT are present in vertebrate and invertebrate muscles to add functional diversity. While the C-terminal region of TnT is largely conserved, it contains an alternatively spliced segment emerged early in C. elegans, which has evolved into a pair of mutually exclusive exons in arthropods (10A and 10B of Drosophila TpnT gene) and vertebrates (16 and 17 of fast skeletal muscle Tnnt3 gene). The C-terminal alternatively spliced segment of TnT interfaces with the other two subunits of troponin with functional significance. The vertebrate cardiac TnT gene that emerged from duplication of the fast TnT gene has eliminated this alternative splicing by the fixation of an exon 17-like constitutive exon, indicating a functional value in slower and rhythmic contractions. The vertebrate slow skeletal muscle TnT gene that emerged from duplication of the cardiac TnT gene has the exon 17-like structure conserved, indicating its further function in sustained and fatigue resistant contractions. This functionality-based evolution is consistent with the finding that exon 10B-encoded segment of Drosophila TnT homologous to the exon 17-encoded segment of vertebrate fast TnT is selectively expressed in insect heart and leg muscles. The evolution of the C-terminal variable region of TnT demonstrates a submolecular mechanism in modifying striated muscle contractility and for the treatment of muscle and heart diseases.

Evolution of Flight Muscle Contractility and Energetic Efficiency.

The powered flight of animals requires efficient and sustainable contractions of the wing muscles of various flying species. Despite their high degree of phylogenetic divergence, flight muscles in insects and vertebrates are striated muscles with similarly specialized sarcomeric structure and basic mechanisms of contraction and relaxation. Comparative studies examining flight muscles together with other striated muscles can provide valuable insights into the fundamental mechanisms of muscle contraction and energetic efficiency. Here, we conducted a literature review and data mining to investigate the independent emergence and evolution of flight muscles in insects, birds, and bats, and the likely molecular basis of their contractile features and energetic efficiency. Bird and bat flight muscles have different metabolic rates that reflect differences in energetic efficiencies while having similar contractile machinery that is under the selection of similar natural environments. The significantly lower efficiency of insect flight muscles along with minimized energy expenditure in Ca2+ handling is discussed as a potential mechanism to increase the efficiency of mammalian striated muscles. A better understanding of the molecular evolution of myofilament proteins in the context of physiological functions of invertebrate and vertebrate flight muscles can help explore novel approaches to enhance the performance and efficiency of skeletal and cardiac muscles for the improvement of human health.

The glutamic acid-rich-long C-terminal extension of troponin T has a critical role in insect muscle functions.

The troponin complex regulates the Ca2+ activation of myofilaments during striated muscle contraction and relaxation. Troponin genes emerged 500-700 million years ago during early animal evolution. Troponin T (TnT) is the thin-filament-anchoring subunit of troponin. Vertebrate and invertebrate TnTs have conserved core structures, reflecting conserved functions in regulating muscle contraction, and they also contain significantly diverged structures, reflecting muscle type- and species-specific adaptations. TnT in insects contains a highly-diverged structure consisting of a long glutamic acid-rich C-terminal extension of ∼70 residues with unknown function. We found here that C-terminally truncated Drosophila TnT (TpnT-CD70) retains binding of tropomyosin, troponin I, and troponin C, indicating a preserved core structure of TnT. However, the mutant TpnTCD70 gene residing on the X chromosome resulted in lethality in male flies. We demonstrate that this X-linked mutation produces dominant-negative phenotypes, including decreased flying and climbing abilities, in heterozygous female flies. Immunoblot quantification with a TpnT-specific mAb indicated expression of TpnT-CD70 in vivo and normal stoichiometry of total TnT in myofilaments of heterozygous female flies. Light and EM examinations revealed primarily normal sarcomere structures in female heterozygous animals, whereas Z-band streaming could be observed in the jump muscle of these flies. Although TpnT-CD70-expressing flies exhibited lower resistance to cardiac stress, their hearts were significantly more tolerant to Ca2+ overloading induced by high-frequency electrical pacing. Our findings suggest that the Glu-rich long C-terminal extension of insect TnT functions as a myofilament Ca2+ buffer/reservoir and is potentially critical to the high-frequency asynchronous contraction of flight muscles.

Invertebrate troponin: Insights into the evolution and regulation of striated muscle contraction.

The troponin complex plays a central role in regulating the contraction and relaxation of striated muscles. Among the three protein subunits of troponin, the calcium receptor subunit, TnC, belongs to the calmodulin family of calcium signaling proteins whereas the inhibitory subunit, TnI, and tropomyosin-binding/thin filament-anchoring subunit, TnT, are striated muscle-specific regulatory proteins. TnI and TnT emerged early in bilateral symmetric invertebrate animals and have co-evolved during the 500-700 million years of muscle evolution. To understand the divergence as well as conservation of the structures of TnI and TnT in invertebrate and vertebrate organisms adds novel insights into the structure-function relationship of troponin and the muscle type isoforms of TnI and TnT. Based on the significant growth of genomic database of multiple species in the past decade, this focused review studied the primary structure features of invertebrate troponin subunits in comparisons with the vertebrate counterparts. The evolutionary data demonstrate valuable information for a better understanding of the thin filament regulation of striated muscle contractility in health and diseases.