Müller Svenja J, Urso Ilenia, Driscoll Sara, Michael Katharina, Sales Gabriele, de Pittà Cristiano, Wessels Wiebke, Meyer Bettina
Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
Scientific Division Polar Biological Oceanography, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany.
PLoS One. 2025 Jun 20;20(6):e0326246. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0326246. eCollection 2025.
Despite the increasing importance of salps and the recognition of their role as important players in food webs and biogeochemical cycles, their life cycle characteristics and physiology remain mysterious. This uncertainty encourages oversimplifying modeling approaches, leading to inaccuracies that may affect population dynamics results. This lack of knowledge is critical, making it difficult to adequately assess their sensitivity to global warming and their impact on ecosystems if their abundance and distribution change with rising seawater temperatures. Therefore, we generated a de novo transcriptome of Salpa fusiformis to further investigate the physiological processes involved in the life cycle of salps. We examined differentially expressed genes between both reproductive forms, blastozooids and oozoids, and detected a general form-specific difference among Salpa. Furthermore, we identified mainly temporally driven processes (energy delivery, cell communication, spermatogenesis) by studying gene expression profiles of different developmental stages of blastozooids of Salpa fusiformis. A life cycle that physiologically prepares blastozooids during the potential reproductive period, regardless of their fertilization status, may favor rapid response to favorable conditions and formation of salp blooms. Understanding the processes involved will contribute to a better assessment of their sensitivity to environmental change and support the implementation of their role in ecosystem models. In addition, the generated transcriptome was used to select and validate a set of potential reference genes for future qPCR applications. This will facilitate molecular studies of tunicates generally and stimulate future physiological studies on salps.
尽管樽海鞘的重要性日益增加，且人们认识到它们在食物网和生物地球化学循环中作为重要参与者的作用，但其生命周期特征和生理学仍然神秘。这种不确定性促使人们过度简化建模方法，导致可能影响种群动态结果的不准确情况。这种知识的匮乏至关重要，使得如果樽海鞘的丰度和分布随海水温度上升而变化，就难以充分评估它们对全球变暖的敏感性及其对生态系统的影响。因此，我们生成了纺锤樽海鞘的从头转录组，以进一步研究樽海鞘生命周期中涉及的生理过程。我们检查了两种生殖形式，即芽体和卵体之间的差异表达基因，并检测到樽海鞘之间普遍存在形式特异性差异。此外，通过研究纺锤樽海鞘芽体不同发育阶段的基因表达谱，我们确定了主要由时间驱动的过程（能量传递、细胞通讯、精子发生）。一个在潜在生殖期生理上为芽体做好准备的生命周期，无论其受精状态如何，可能有利于对有利条件做出快速反应并形成樽海鞘水华。了解其中涉及的过程将有助于更好地评估它们对环境变化的敏感性，并支持在生态系统模型中纳入它们的作用。此外，生成的转录组用于选择和验证一组潜在的参考基因，以供未来的qPCR应用。这将总体上促进对被囊动物的分子研究，并激发未来对樽海鞘的生理学研究。
