title: Expression of an Androgenic Gland-Specific Insulin-Like Peptide during the Course of Prawn Sexual and Morphotypic Differentiation.
abstract: The crustacean male-specific androgenic gland (AG) regulates sexual differentiation. In the prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii, silencing an AG-specific insulin-like encoding transcript (Mr-IAG) inhibited the development of male sexual characters, suggesting that Mr-IAG is a key androgenic hormone. We used recombinant pro-Mr-IAG peptide to generate antibodies that recognized the peptide in AG cells and extracts, as verified by mass spectrometry. We revealed the temporal expression pattern of Mr-IAG and studied its relevance to the timetable of sex differentiation processes in juveniles and after puberty. Mr-IAG was expressed from as early as 20 days after metamorphosis, prior to the appearance of external male sexual characters. Mr-IAG expression was lower in the less reproductively active orange-clawed males than in both the dominant blue-clawed males and the actively sneak mating small males. These results suggest a role for Mr-IAG both in the timing of male sexual differentiation and in regulating reproductive strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Tomer
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ventura
authors.forename: Rivka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Manor
authors.forename: Eliahu D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Aflalo
authors.forename: Simy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weil
authors.forename: Isam
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Khalaila
authors.forename: Ohad
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rosen
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sagi