The "eyes absent" (eya) gene in the eye-bearing hydrozoan jellyfish Cladonema radiatum : conservation of the retinal determination network

Eyes absent (Eya) is a member of the Retinal Determination Gene Network (RDGN), a set of genes responsible for eye specification in Drosophila. Eya is a dual function protein, working as a transcription factor in the nucleus and as a tyrosine phosphatase in the cytoplasm. It had been shown that Pax and Six family genes, main components of the RDGN, are present in the hydrozoan Cladonema radiatum and that they are expressed in the eye. However, nothing had been known about the Eya family in hydrozoan jellyfish. Here we report the presence of an Eya homologue (CrEya) in Cladonema. Real-time PCR analysis and in situ hybridization showed that CrEya is expressed in the eye. Furthermore, the comprehensive survey of eukaryote genomes revealed that the acquisition of the N-terminal transactivation domain, including the EYA Domain 2 and its adjacent sequence shared by all eumetazoans, happened early in evolution, before the separation of Cnidaria and Bilateria. Our results uncover the evolution of the two domains and show a conservation of the expression pattern of the Eya gene between Cnidaria and Bilateria, which, together with previous data, supports the hypothesis of the monophyletic origin of metazoans eyes. We additionally show that CrEya is also expressed in the oocytes, where two other members of the RDGN, CrPaxB, and Six4/5-Cr, are known to be expressed. These data suggest that several members of the RDGN have begun to be localized also into the different context of egg development early in the course of metazoan evolution.