Divalent metal transporter-related protein restricts animals to marine habitats

Utilization and regulation of metals from seawater by marine organisms are important physiological processes. To better understand metal regulation, we searched the crown-of-thorns starfish genome for the divalent metal transporter (DMT) gene, a membrane protein responsible for uptake of divalent cations. We found two DMT-like sequences. One is an ortholog of vertebrate DMT, but the other is an unknown protein, which we named DMT-related protein (DMTRP). Functional analysis using a yeast expression system demonstrated that DMT transports various metals, like known DMTs, but DMTRP does not. In contrast, DMTRP reduced the intracellular concentration of some metals, especially zinc, suggesting its involvement in negative regulation of metal uptake. Phylogenetic distribution of the DMTRP gene in various metazoans, including sponges, protostomes, and deuterostomes, indicates that it originated early in metazoan evolution. However, the DMTRP gene is only retained in marine species, and its loss seems to have occurred independently in ecdysozoan and vertebrate lineages from which major freshwater and land animals appeared. DMTRP may be an evolutionary and ecological limitation, restricting organisms that possess it to marine habitats, whereas its loss may have allowed other organisms to invade freshwater and terrestrial habitats. Mieko Sassa et al. report a novel divalent metal transporter protein (DMTRP) in the crown-of-thorns starfish genome and determine that all organisms with a DMTRP gene are located in marine habitats. They also show in a functional yeast system that DMTRP can prevent uptake of certain metals, bringing insight into the evolution of metal regulation for marine organisms.