Chen Fei, Wu Wenwei, Li Min, Su Ying, Huang Miaoqing, Luo Xuan, You Weiwei, Ke Caihuan
College of Biological Science and Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China.
State Key Laboratory of Mariculture Breeding, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China.
Genes (Basel). 2025 Mar 11;16(3):329. doi: 10.3390/genes16030329.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: and belong to the DEAD-box protein family, which plays crucial roles in various cellular functions, such as DNA replication, DNA repair, and RNA processing. Additionally, DEAD-box family genes have also been identified as being related to gonadal development in many species. However, the function of and in abalone is poorly understood on a molecular level.
In the present study, we individually isolated and characterized the and orthologs in ( and ). We also characterized the mRNA distributions of and in various tissues from adult organisms and different embryonic developmental stages using real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) techniques. Furthermore, spatial and temporal expression of and throughout embryonic and larval development was examined by whole-mount in situ hybridization (WMISH).
The two predicted amino acid sequences contained all of the conserved motifs characterized by the DEAD-box family. Homology and phylogenetic analyses indicate that they belong to the vasa and PL10 subfamilies. We found that and mRNA were not solely restricted to gonads but were widely expressed in various tissues. WMISH showed that and largely overlapped, with both being maternally expressed and specifically localized to the micromere lineage cells during early cleavage stages. By the gastrulation stage, were expressed strongly in two bilaterally symmetrical paraxial clusters, but was dispersed in entire endodermal region. Our results suggest that -expressing cells are located as a subpopulation of undifferentiated multipotent cells that express . As such, we infer that primordial germ cells are specified from these -expressing cells at some point during development, and inductive signals (epigenesis) play an important role in specifying primordial germ cells (PGCs) in .
This study provides valuable insights into the molecular characteristics and expression patterns of and , contributing to a better understanding of their roles in germ cell specification and early embryonic development in .
背景/目的：[具体基因名称1]和[具体基因名称2]属于DEAD-box蛋白家族，该家族在多种细胞功能中发挥关键作用，如DNA复制、DNA修复和RNA加工。此外，DEAD-box家族基因在许多物种中也被鉴定为与性腺发育相关。然而，在分子水平上，[具体基因名称1]和[具体基因名称2]在鲍鱼中的功能仍知之甚少。
在本研究中，我们分别分离并鉴定了鲍鱼（[鲍鱼的拉丁学名]）中的[具体基因名称1]和[具体基因名称2]直系同源基因（[具体基因名称1]和[具体基因名称2]）。我们还使用实时定量聚合酶链反应（RT-qPCR）技术，对成体生物不同组织以及不同胚胎发育阶段中[具体基因名称1]和[具体基因名称2]的mRNA分布进行了鉴定。此外，通过全胚胎原位杂交（WMISH）检测了[具体基因名称1]和[具体基因名称2]在整个胚胎和幼虫发育过程中的时空表达情况。
两个预测的氨基酸序列包含了DEAD-box家族特有的所有保守基序。同源性和系统发育分析表明，它们属于vasa和PL10亚家族。我们发现，[具体基因名称1]和[具体基因名称2]的mRNA并非仅局限于性腺，而是在多种组织中广泛表达。WMISH显示，[具体基因名称1]和[具体基因名称2]的表达在很大程度上重叠，二者在卵裂早期均由母体表达，并特异性定位于小分裂球谱系细胞中。到原肠胚形成阶段，[具体基因名称1]在两个左右对称的近轴细胞簇中强烈表达，但[具体基因名称2]分散在整个内胚层区域。我们的结果表明，表达[具体基因名称1]的细胞作为表达[具体基因名称2]的未分化多能细胞亚群定位存在。因此，我们推断在发育的某个阶段，原始生殖细胞从这些表达[具体基因名称1]的细胞中特化而来，并且诱导信号（表观遗传）在鲍鱼原始生殖细胞（PGCs）特化过程中发挥重要作用。
本研究为[具体基因名称1]和[具体基因名称2]的分子特征和表达模式提供了有价值的见解，有助于更好地理解它们在鲍鱼生殖细胞特化和早期胚胎发育中的作用。
