Zhang Ya-Nan, Zhu Xiu-Yun, Wang Wen-Ping, Wang Yi, Wang Lu, Xu Xiao-Xue, Zhang Kun, Deng Dao-Gui
College of Life Sciences, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, China.
Sci Rep. 2016 Sep 27;6:34241. doi: 10.1038/srep34241.
The water flea Daphnia are planktonic crustaceans commonly found in freshwater environment that can switch their reproduction mode from parthenogenesis to sexual reproduction to adapt to the external environment. As such, Daphnia are great model organisms to study the mechanism of reproductive switching, the underlying mechanism of reproduction and development in cladocerans and other animals. However, little is known about the Daphnia's reproductive behaviour at a molecular level. We constructed a genetic database of the genes expressed in a sexual female (SF) and a parthenogenetic female (PF) of D. similoides using Illumina HiSeq 2500. A total of 1,763 differentially expressed genes (865 up- and 898 down-regulated) were detected in SF. Of the top 30 up-regulated SF unigenes, the top 4 unigenes belonged to the Chitin_bind_4 family. In contrast, of the top down-regulated SF unigenes, the top 3 unigenes belonged to the Vitellogenin_N family. This is the first study to indicate genes that may have a crucial role in reproductive switching of D. similoides, which could be used as candidate genes for further functional studies. Thus, this study provides a rich resource for investigation and elucidation of reproductive switching in D. similoides.
水蚤是一种浮游甲壳类动物，常见于淡水环境中，它们能够将繁殖模式从孤雌生殖转变为有性生殖，以适应外部环境。因此，水蚤是研究繁殖转换机制、枝角类动物及其他动物生殖和发育潜在机制的优秀模式生物。然而，在分子水平上，人们对水蚤的生殖行为知之甚少。我们使用Illumina HiSeq 2500构建了一个关于相似水蚤有性雌性（SF）和孤雌生殖雌性（PF）中表达基因的遗传数据库。在SF中总共检测到1763个差异表达基因（865个上调和898个下调）。在SF上调程度最高的30个单基因中，前4个单基因属于几丁质结合蛋白4家族。相比之下，在SF下调程度最高的单基因中，前3个单基因属于卵黄蛋白原N家族。这是第一项表明可能在相似水蚤繁殖转换中起关键作用的基因的研究，这些基因可作为进一步功能研究的候选基因。因此，本研究为调查和阐明相似水蚤的繁殖转换提供了丰富的资源。
