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Gene Expression Changes Associated With the Developmental Plasticity of Sea Urchin Larvae in Response to Food Availability.

ABSTRACT: Planktotrophic sea urchin larvae are developmentally plastic: in response to food scarcity, development of the juvenile rudiment is suspended and larvae instead develop elongated arms, thus increasing feeding capacity and extending larval life. Here, data are presented on the effect of different feeding regimes on gene expression in larvae of the green sea urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis. These data indicate that during periods of starvation, larvae down-regulate genes involved in growth and metabolic activity while up-regulating genes involved in lipid transport, environmental sensing, and defense. Additionally, we show that starvation increases FoxO activity and that in well-fed larvae rapamycin treatment impedes rudiment growth, indicating that the latter requires TOR activity. These results suggest that the developmental plasticity of echinoplutei is regulated by genes known to control aging and longevity in other animals.

SUBMITTER: Carrier TJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4706744 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Gene Expression Changes Associated With the Developmental Plasticity of Sea Urchin Larvae in Response to Food Availability.

Carrier Tyler J TJ King Benjamin L BL Coffman James A JA

The Biological bulletin 20150601 3

Planktotrophic sea urchin larvae are developmentally plastic: in response to food scarcity, development of the juvenile rudiment is suspended and larvae instead develop elongated arms, thus increasing feeding capacity and extending larval life. Here, data are presented on the effect of different feeding regimes on gene expression in larvae of the green sea urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis. These data indicate that during periods of starvation, larvae down-regulate genes involved in growt ...[more]

PMID: 26124444

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Project description:In this research we present a transcriptomics analysis of the physiological response of a marine calcifier, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, to ocean acidification, a decline in ocean pH that results from the absorption of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2). Larvae were raised from fertilization to prism stage in seawater with elevated CO2 conditions based upon IPCC emissions scenario B1 (540ppm CO2) and A1FI (1020ppm CO2). Adult S. purpuratus were collected using SCUBA from Goleta Pier (Goleta,CA, USA) and maintained in flowing seawater tables at 15-16°C. Spawning was induced by coelomic injection of 0.5M KCl following standard methods (Strathmann 1987). Eggs were collected from 3 females and separately fertilized by sperm from a single male (i.e. all larvae were full or half-siblings). Each of the three replicate cultures were divided in three (nine cultures total) and held in 10L flow-through containers filled with seawater aerated through a side arm with commercially manufactured air containing three different pCO2: 380ppm CO2 (present day atmospheric CO2 level, pH 8.01 ± 0.01), 540ppm CO2, an optimistic atmospheric CO2 concentration predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for 2100 (B1 scenario, pH 7.96 ± 0.01) and 1020ppm CO2 (A1FI scenario, pH 7.88 ± 0.01). Larvae were cultured at 15°C until prism stage (40h post-fertilization). At the 40 hour time point, a sample of 60,000 larvae was removed from each of the 9 cultures in the 380, 540 and 1020 ppm treatments and stored in 1 mL Trizol at -80 ºC for later RNA analysis. The larval cDNA sample from each replicate 540ppm CO2 culture was competitively hybridized against the 380ppm CO2 control culture from the same replicate female. Similarly, the larval cDNA sample from each replicate 1020ppm CO2 culture was competitively hybridized against the 380ppm CO2 control culture from the same replicate female. Using dye swaps of technical replicates, treatment effects could be estimated independently of dye effects.

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Dataset Information

Gene Expression Changes Associated With the Developmental Plasticity of Sea Urchin Larvae in Response to Food Availability.

Publications

Gene Expression Changes Associated With the Developmental Plasticity of Sea Urchin Larvae in Response to Food Availability.

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