1. Expression of an Androgenic Gland-Specific Insulin-Like Peptide during the Course of Prawn Sexual and Morphotypic Differentiation
- Author
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Tomer Ventura, Amir Sagi, Ohad Rosen, Isam Khalaila, Simy Weil, Rivka Manor, and Eliahu D. Aflalo
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Sexual differentiation ,Article Subject ,Macrobrachium rosenbergii ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Biology ,biology.organism_classification ,Endocrinology ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Prawn ,Gene silencing ,Metamorphosis ,Mating ,Relaxin/insulin-like family peptide receptor 2 ,Research Article ,media_common ,Hormone - Abstract
The crustacean male-specific androgenic gland (AG) regulates sexual differentiation. In the prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii, silencing an AG-specific insulin-like encoding transcript (Mr-IAG) inhibited the development of male sexual characters, suggesting that Mr-IAG is a key androgenic hormone. We used recombinant pro-Mr-IAG peptide to generate antibodies that recognized the peptide in AG cells and extracts, as verified by mass spectrometry. We revealed the temporal expression pattern of Mr-IAG and studied its relevance to the timetable of sex differentiation processes in juveniles and after puberty. Mr-IAG was expressed from as early as 20 days after metamorphosis, prior to the appearance of external male sexual characters. Mr-IAG expression was lower in the less reproductively active orange-clawed males than in both the dominant blue-clawed males and the actively sneak mating small males. These results suggest a role for Mr-IAG both in the timing of male sexual differentiation and in regulating reproductive strategies.
- Published
- 2011
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