Gene Expression Rhythms in the Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lam.) across an Annual Cycle
Open Access
- 5 May 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 6 (5), e18904
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018904
Abstract
Seasonal environmental changes may affect the physiology of Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lam.), an intertidal filter-feeder bivalve occurring commonly in Mediterranean and Atlantic coastal areas. We investigated seasonal variations in relative transcript abundance of the digestive gland and the mantle (gonads) of males and females. To identify gene expression trends – in terms of relative mRNA abundance- we used a medium-density cDNA microarray (1.7 K probes) in dual-color competitive hybridization analyses. Hierarchical clustering of digestive gland microarray data showed two main branches, distinguishing profiles associated with the “hot” months (May–August) from the other months. Genes involved in chitin metabolism, associated with mussel nutrition and digestion showed higher mRNA levels during summer. Moreover, we found different gene transcriptomic patterns in the digestive glands of males when compared to females, during the four stages of mussel gonadal development. Microarray data from gonadal transcripts also displayed clear patterns during the different developmental phases respect to the resting period (stage I) with peak relative mRNA abundance at the ripe phase (stage III) for both sexes. These data showed a clear temporal pattern in transcriptomic profiles of mussels sampled over an annual cycle. Physiological response to thermal variation, food availability, and reproductive status across months may contribute to variation in relative mRNA abundance.Keywords
This publication has 59 references indexed in Scilit:
- Pyrosequencing of Mytilus galloprovincialis cDNAs: Tissue-Specific Expression PatternsPLOS ONE, 2010
- Chitin in Diatoms and Its Association with the Cell WallEukaryotic Cell, 2009
- Transcriptional expression levels of cell stress marker genes in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas exposed to acute thermal stressCell Stress and Chaperones, 2009
- Rhythms of Gene Expression in a Fluctuating Intertidal EnvironmentCurrent Biology, 2008
- Characterization of reproduction-specific genes in a marine bivalve mollusc: Influence of maturation stage and sex on mRNA expressionGene, 2008
- Essential Role of Chitinase in the Development of the Filarial Nematode Acanthocheilonema viteaeInfection and Immunity, 2008
- Blast2GO: a universal tool for annotation, visualization and analysis in functional genomics researchBioinformatics, 2005
- Linear Models and Empirical Bayes Methods for Assessing Differential Expression in Microarray ExperimentsStatistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology, 2004
- Relative expression software tool (REST(C)) for group-wise comparison and statistical analysis of relative expression results in real-time PCRNucleic Acids Research, 2002
- Basic local alignment search toolJournal of Molecular Biology, 1990