title: The Up-Regulation of Ribosomal Proteins Further Regulates Protein Expression Profile in Female Schistosoma japonicum after Pairing.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pairing of Schistosoma males and females leads to and maintains female sexual maturation. However, the mechanism by which pairing facilitates sexual maturation of females is not clear. An increasing body of evidence suggests that ribosomal proteins have regulatory rather than constitutive roles in protein translation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To investigate the effect of ribosome regulation on female sex maturation, Solexa and iTRAQ techniques were used to analyze the relationship between ribosomal gene or protein expression and sexual development of Schistosoma females. In the present study, considerably higher number of ribosomal genes or proteins were found to be differentially expressed in paired 23-day-old females. Moreover, mature female-specific proteins associated with egg production, such as ferritin-1 heavy chain and superoxide dismutase, were selectively highly expressed in paired females, rather than higher level of protein synthesis of all transcripts compared with those in unpaired 23-day-old females. Furthermore, other developmental stages were utilized to investigate different expression pattern of ribosomal proteins in females by analysing 18-day-old female schistosomula from single- or double-sex infections to determine the relationship between ribosomal protein expression pattern and development. Results showed that undeveloped 18-day-old females from single- and double-sex infections, as well as 23-day-old unpaired females, possessed similar ribosomal protein expression patterns, which were distinct from those in 23-day-old paired females.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings reveal that the pairing of females and males triggers a specialized ribosomal protein expression profile which further regulates the protein profile for sexual maturation in Schistosoma japonicum, based on its gene expression profile.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Development, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute for Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Development, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute for Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Development, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Suwen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D021381:Protein Transport; D012269:Ribosomal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012549:Schistosoma japonicum / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012741:Sexual Maturation / Q000235:genetics; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D012269:Ribosomal Proteins