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Diversity As Opportunity: Insights From 600 Million Years Of Ahr Evolution, Rebeka R. Merson, Mark E. Hahn, Sibel I. Karchner

Faculty Publications

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) was for many years of interest only to pharmacologists and toxicologists. However, this protein has fundamental roles in biology that are being revealed through studies in diverse animal species. The AHR is an ancient protein. AHR homologs exist in most major groups of modern bilaterian animals, including deuterostomes (chordates, hemichordates, echinoderms) and the two major clades of protostome invertebrates [ecdysozoans (e.g. arthropods and nematodes) and lophotrochozoans (e.g. molluscs and annelids)]. AHR homologs also have been identified in cnidarians such as the sea anemone Nematostella and in the genome of Trichoplax, a placozoan. Bilaterians, cnidarians, and …