Molecular Evolution of Fish Neurohypophysial Hormones: Neutral and Selective Evolutionary Mechanisms

Chemical identification of neurohypophysial hormones from about 80 vertebrate species reveals that two evolutionary lineages can be traced in bony vertebrates, a vasopressin-like hormone line and an oxytocin-like hormone line, which were derived from the duplication of an ancestral gene that may have been present in agnathans. All of the 13 neurohypophysial hormones are built in the same structural pattern, namely, a nonapeptide with a disulfide bridge linking half-cystines in positions 1 and 6. There is a striking evolutionary stability in bony vertebrates since virtually all species belonging to a given class are endowed with the same peptides. In contrast, in cartilaginous fishes, the oxytocin-like hormone displays a great diversity. Six distinct peptides are characterized in this group. The proposed hypothesis is that the stability in primary structure in bony vertebrates is due to selective pressure. This selective pressure is associated with an ion-based osmoregulation, whereas in Chondrichthyes the occurrence of an urea-based osmoregulation has relieved the hormones from the control of ionic homeostasis. Variations in primary structures in cartilaginous fishes are regarded as relevant to the neutral evolution as defined by Kimura. According to this concept, oxytocin of placental mammals results from selective evolution, whereas the same molecule found in ratfish proceeds from random genetic drift.