Expression of major gap junction connexin types in the working myocardium of eight chordates

The alpha 1 connexin (connexin43) is regarded as the major gap junction protein of the myocardium because it predominates there in mammals. Here, we show that it is not the major connexin of the working myocardium in non-mammalian vertebrates, which instead express pi-like connexins homologous to mammalian connexin32. A phylogenetic series of hearts was immunostained with seven antibodies raised against peptide sequences specific for three distinct members of the gap junction connexin family: alpha 1, beta 1 and alpha 5 (mammalian connexin40/avian connexin42). Working myocardium from two ascidian chordates (Ciona and Mogula), a teleost (Carassius), a frog (Xenopus) and two reptiles (Anolis and Alligator) was found to express a beta 1-like connexin, rather than an alpha 1-like connexin. An alpha 1-like connexin was nevertheless often detected in other cardiac tissues. In the chicken (by ancestry a reptile), the developing myocardium expressed a beta 1-like connexin strongly on embryonic day 6 but less strongly at hatching, and minimally in the adult. Myocardial expression of alpha 5 connexin increased during development, but remained strongest in the coronary vascular endothelial and cardiac conduction tissues. The arteriolar smooth muscle of the chicken expressed alpha 1 connexin throughout development, but its myocardium did not. In contrast, the working myocardium of a marsupial mammal (the opossum Trichosurus) strongly expressed an alpha 1 connexin just like placental mammals. These results imply that a shift from beta 1 to alpha 1 connexin expression in the heart occurred prior to the evolution of the opossums. The beta and alpha connexin subfamilies have different permeabilities and gating properties, and we discuss factors that might have made this shift beneficial. (C) 1998 Academic Press.