ABSTRACT
Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) produces nitric oxide (NO) by catalyzing the conversion of l-arginine to l-citrulline, with the concomitant oxidation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate. Recently, various studies have verified the importance of NOS invertebrates and invertebrates. However, the NOS gene family in the oriental river prawn Macrobrachium nipponense is poorly understood. In this study, we cloned the full-length NOS complementary DNA from M. nipponense (MnNOS) and characterized its expression pattern in different tissues and at different developmental stages. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) showed the MnNOS gene to be expressed in all investigated tissues, with the highest levels observed in the androgenic gland (P < 0.05). Our results revealed that the MnNOS gene may play a key role in M. nipponense male sexual differentiation. Moreover, RT-qPCR revealed that MnNOS mRNA expression was significantly increased in post-larvae 10 days after metamorphosis (P < 0.05). The expression of this gene in various tissues indicates that it may perform versatile biological functions in M. nipponense.
Subject(s)
Arthropod Proteins/genetics , Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental , Nitric Oxide Synthase/genetics , Palaemonidae/genetics , Amino Acid Sequence , Animals , Arthropod Proteins/metabolism , Base Sequence , China , Cloning, Molecular , Conservation of Natural Resources , DNA, Complementary/genetics , DNA, Complementary/metabolism , Embryo, Nonmammalian , Female , Larva/genetics , Larva/growth & development , Male , Nitric Oxide Synthase/metabolism , Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques , Organ Specificity , Palaemonidae/classification , Palaemonidae/growth & development , Phylogeny , Rivers , Sequence Alignment , Sequence Homology, Amino AcidABSTRACT
Increasing evidence suggests that the insulin-like androgenic gland hormone (IAG) gene plays an important role in male sexual differentiation, metabolism, and growth in crustaceans. In the present study, we isolated the full-length genome sequence of IAG by genome walking based on the cDNA sequence in Macrobrachium nipponense. Four novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were studied, including 509G>T, 529G>T, 590A>T in intron 1, and 2226A>G in intron 2. The association of genetic variation with growth traits [body length (BL) and body weight (BW)] was analyzed. Individuals with GG geno- type at locus 2226A>G maintained higher mean BL (P < 0.01) and BW (P < 0.05) than AA and GA individuals. These results suggest that IAG SNPs may be useful molecular markers for selecting growth traits in M. nipponense.
