Prawn lipocalin: characteristics and expressional pattern in subepidermal adipose tissue during reproductive molting cycle.
In crustaceans, the fascinating processes of maturation, reproductive molting and carapace coloration are regulated by hydrophobic molecules. Interestingly, most of the molecules are ligands of lipocalin. To understand the role of lipocalin in the aforementioned processes at molecular level, we isolated a cDNA that belongs to the lipocalin family, from a central nervous system cDNA library of Macrobrachium rosenbergii. We monitored the spatial and temporal distributions of the mRNA by using Northern Blotting analysis. Our results demonstrated that this gene expresses abundantly in the subepidermal adipose tissue, while faintly in the hepatopancreas and central nervous system. However, no signal was detected in other tissues including muscle, gill and ovary. Its expression levels in subepidermal adipose tissue during various stages of maturation as well as through the whole molting cycle showed that prawn lipocalin is involved in sexual maturation, as the maximal level was observed just after molt.
Wang
Mo-Ran
MR
Institute of Cell Biology and Genetics, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058 PR China.
Zhu
Xiao-Jing
XJ
Yang
Jin-Shu
JS
Dai
Zhong-Min
ZM
Mahmood
Khalid
K
Yang
Fan
F
Yang
Wei-Jun
WJ
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D054834:Lipocalins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018978:Molting / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D033561:Penaeidae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D054834:Lipocalins