Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers (1821-1901), the father of experimental zoology and founder of the marine stations of Roscoff and Banyuls.

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers, one of the most curious and active scientific minds among 19th century naturalists, this article retraces his scientific career and recalls the long-term changes he made in the practice of science: promotion of experimental zoology, foundation of a modern scientific journal and establishment of the marine stations of Roscoff and Banyuls.

À l'occasion du 200ème anniversaire de la naissance de Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers, l'un des esprits scientifiques les plus curieux et les plus actifs parmi les naturalistes du XIXe siècle, cet article retrace sa carrière scientifique et rappelle les tournants qu'il a durablement imprimés à la pratique de la science : promotion de la zoologie expérimentale, fondation dune revue scientifique moderne et édification des stations marines de Roscoff et de Banyuls.

The loss of the hemoglobin H2S-binding function in annelids from sulfide-free habitats reveals molecular adaptation driven by Darwinian positive selection.

The hemoglobin of the deep-sea hydrothermal vent vestimentiferan Riftia pachyptila (annelid) is able to bind toxic hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) to free cysteine residues and to transport it to fuel endosymbiotic sulfide-oxidising bacteria. The cysteine residues are conserved key amino acids in annelid globins living in sulfide-rich environments, but are absent in annelid globins from sulfide-free environments. Synonymous and nonsynonymous substitution analysis from two different sets of orthologous annelid globin genes from sulfide rich and sulfide free environments have been performed to understand how the sulfide-binding function of hemoglobin appeared and has been maintained during the course of evolution. This study reveals that the sites occupied by free-cysteine residues in annelids living in sulfide-rich environments and occupied by other amino acids in annelids from sulfide-free environments, have undergone positive selection in annelids from sulfide-free environments. We assumed that the high reactivity of cysteine residues became a disadvantage when H(2)S disappeared because free cysteines without their natural ligand had the capacity to interact with other blood components, disturb homeostasis, reduce fitness and thus could have been counterselected. To our knowledge, we pointed out for the first time a case of function loss driven by molecular adaptation rather than genetic drift. If constraint relaxation (H(2)S disappearance) led to the loss of the sulfide-binding function in modern annelids from sulfide-free environments, our work suggests that adaptation to sulfide-rich environments is a plesiomorphic feature, and thus that the annelid ancestor could have emerged in a sulfide-rich environment.

Evolution of the sulfide-binding function within the globin multigenic family of the deep-sea hydrothermal vent tubeworm Riftia pachyptila.

The giant extracellular hexagonal bilayer hemoglobin (HBL-Hb) of the deep-sea hydrothermal vent tube worm Riftia pachyptila is able to transport simultaneously O(2) and H(2)S in the blood from the gills to a specific organ: the trophosome that harbors sulfide-oxidizing endosymbionts. This vascular HBL-Hb is made of 144 globins from which four globin types (A1, A2, B1, and B2) coevolve. The H(2)S is bound at a specific location (not on the heme site) onto two of these globin types. In order to understand how such a function emerged and evolved in vestimentiferans and other related annelids, six partial cDNAs corresponding to the six globins known to compose the multigenic family of R. pachyptila have been identified and sequenced. These partial sequences (ca. 120 amino acids, i.e., 80% of the entire protein) were used to reconstruct molecular phylogenies in order to trace duplication events that have led to the family organization of these globins and to locate the position of the free cysteine residues known to bind H(2)S. From these sequences, only two free cysteine residues have been found to occur, at positions Cys + 1 (i.e., 1 a.a. from the well-conserved distal histidine) and Cys + 11 (i.e., 11 a.a. from the same histidine) in globins B2 and A2, respectively. These two positions are well conserved in annelids, vestimentiferans, and pogonophorans, which live in sulfidic environments. The structural comparison of the hydrophobic environment that surrounds these cysteine residues (the sulfide-binding domain) using hydrophobic cluster analysis plots, together with the cysteine positions in paralogous strains, suggests that the sulfide-binding function might have emerged before the annelid radiation in order to detoxify this toxic compound. Moreover, globin evolutionary rates are highly different between paralogous strains. This suggests that either the two globin subfamilies involved in the sulfide-binding function (A2 and B2) have evolved under strong directional selective constraints (negative selection) and that the two other globins (A1 and B1) have accumulated more substitutions through positive selection or have evolved neutrally after a relaxation of selection pressures. A likely scenario on the evolution of this multigenic family is proposed and discussed from this data set.