KAUST Global Collaborative Research, Division of Life Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China ; Integrative Systems Biology Laboratory, Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Division of Applied Mathematics and Computer Sciences, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
PLoS One. 2013 Aug 30;8(8):e72990. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072990. eCollection 2013.
The Neanthesacuminata species complex (Polychaeta) are cosmopolitan in distribution. Neanthesarenaceodentata, Southern California member of the N. acuminata complex, has been widely used as toxicological test animal in the marine environment. Method of reproduction is unique in this polychaete complex. Same sexes fight and opposite sexes lie side by side until egg laying. Females lose about 75% of their weight and die after laying eggs. The male, capable of reproducing up to nine times, fertilizes the eggs and incubates the embryos for 3-4 weeks. The objective of this study was to determine if there is any set of proteins that influences this unique pattern of reproduction. Gel-based two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) and gel-free quantitative proteomics methods were used to identify differential protein expression patterns before and after spawning in both male and female N. arenaceodentata. Males showed a higher degree of similarity in protein expression patterns but females showed large changes in phosphoproteme before and after spawning. There was a decrease (about 70%) in the number of detected phosphoproteins in spent females. The proteins involved in muscular development, cell signaling, structure and integrity, and translation were differentially expressed. This study provides proteomic insights of the male and female worms that may serve as a foundation for better understanding of unusual reproductive patterns in polychaete worms.
刺铠沙蚕物种复合体（多毛纲）分布广泛。南加利福尼亚的刺铠沙蚕是刺铠沙蚕复合体的成员，被广泛用作海洋环境中的毒理学测试动物。这种多毛类动物的繁殖方式是独特的。同种性别之间会互相争斗，而异种性别则会并排躺着，直到产卵。雌性会失去大约 75%的体重，产卵后死亡。雄性则有能力繁殖多达九次，它们使卵子受精并孵化胚胎 3-4 周。本研究的目的是确定是否有任何一组蛋白质会影响这种独特的繁殖模式。基于凝胶的二维电泳（2-DE）和无凝胶定量蛋白质组学方法用于在雄性和雌性刺铠沙蚕产卵前后鉴定差异蛋白表达模式。雄性的蛋白质表达模式具有更高的相似性，但雌性在产卵前后的磷酸蛋白质表达上发生了较大变化。产卵后的雌性检测到的磷酸蛋白数量减少了约 70%。涉及肌肉发育、细胞信号转导、结构和完整性以及翻译的蛋白质表达水平存在差异。本研究提供了雌雄虫的蛋白质组学见解，可能为更好地理解多毛类动物不寻常的繁殖模式提供基础。
