Abstract
Background: While the larval-juvenile transition (metamorphosis) in the spionid polychaete Pseudopolydora vexillosa involves gradual morphological changes and does not require substantial development of juvenile organs, the opposite occurs in the barnacle Balanus amphitrite. We hypothesized that the proteome changes during metamorphosis in the spionids are less drastic than that in the barnacles. To test this, proteomes of pre-competent larvae, competent larvae (ready to metamorphose), and juveniles of P. vexillosa were compared using 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE), and they were then compared to those of the barnacle.Results: Unlike the significant changes found during barnacle metamorphosis, proteomes of competent P. vexillosa larvae were more similar to those of their juveniles. Pre-competent larvae had significantly fewer protein spots (384 spots), while both competent larvae and juveniles expressed about 660 protein spots each. Proteins up-regulated during competence identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF analysis included a molecular chaperon (calreticulin), a signal transduction regulator (tyrosin activation protein), and a tissue-remodeling enzyme (metallopeptidase).Conclusions: This was the first time to study the protein expression patterns during the metamorphosis of a marine polychaete and to compare the proteomes of marine invertebrates that have different levels of morphological changes during metamorphosis. The findings provide promising initial steps towards the development of a proteome database for marine invertebrate metamorphosis, thus deciphering the possible mechanisms underlying larval metamorphosis in non-model marine organisms. © 2009 Mok et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 44 |
| Journal | Proteome Science |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 17 2009 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: We are grateful to 3 anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions in improving the manuscript. We thank Dr. Priscilla Leung and Mr. Jack Man (Genome Research Centre, HKU) for MS analysis. We are also thankful to Dr. Kondethimma H. Chandramouli, Dr. Shawn M. Arellano, Dr. Olivia Ambrogio, and Dr. On On Lee for proof-reading the manuscript. This study was supported by the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams, a research grant (GRF #662408) from the HKSAR Government, and KAUST Global Partnership Program awarded to PY Qian.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.
