Dataset Information

Developmental Transcriptomic Analysis of the Cave-Dwelling Crustacean, Asellus aquaticus.

ABSTRACT: Cave animals are a fascinating group of species often demonstrating characteristics including reduced eyes and pigmentation, metabolic efficiency, and enhanced sensory systems. Asellus aquaticus, an isopod crustacean, is an emerging model for cave biology. Cave and surface forms of this species differ in many characteristics, including eye size, pigmentation, and antennal length. Existing resources for this species include a linkage map, mapped regions responsible for eye and pigmentation traits, sequenced adult transcriptomes, and comparative embryological descriptions of the surface and cave forms. Our ultimate goal is to identify genes and mutations responsible for the differences between the cave and surface forms. To advance this goal, we decided to use a transcriptomic approach. Because many of these changes first appear during embryonic development, we sequenced embryonic transcriptomes of cave, surface, and hybrid individuals at the stage when eyes and pigment become evident in the surface form. We generated a cave, a surface, a hybrid, and an integrated transcriptome to identify differentially expressed genes in the cave and surface forms. Additionally, we identified genes with allele-specific expression in hybrid individuals. These embryonic transcriptomes are an important resource to assist in our ultimate goal of determining the genetic underpinnings of the divergence between the cave and surface forms.

SUBMITTER: Gross JB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7016750 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Developmental Transcriptomic Analysis of the Cave-Dwelling Crustacean, <i>Asellus aquaticus</i>.

Gross Joshua B JB Sun Dennis A DA Carlson Brian M BM Brodo-Abo Sivan S Protas Meredith E ME

Genes 20191229 1

Cave animals are a fascinating group of species often demonstrating characteristics including reduced eyes and pigmentation, metabolic efficiency, and enhanced sensory systems. <i>Asellus aquaticus</i>, an isopod crustacean, is an emerging model for cave biology. Cave and surface forms of this species differ in many characteristics, including eye size, pigmentation, and antennal length. Existing resources for this species include a linkage map, mapped regions responsible for eye and pigmentation ...[more]

PMID: 31905778

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Project description:The freshwater isopod crustacean Asellus aquaticus has recently been developed as an emerging invertebrate cave model for studying evolutionary and developmental biology. Mostly morphological and genetic differences between cave and surface A. aquaticus populations have been described up to now, while scarce data are available on other aspects, including physiology. The purpose of this study was to advance our understanding of the physiological differences between cave A. aquaticus and its surface-dwelling counterparts. We sampled two surface populations from the surface section of the sinking Pivka River (central Slovenia, Europe), i.e. locality Pivka Polje, and locality Planina Polje, and one cave population from the subterranean section of the sinking Pivka River, i.e. locality Planina Cave. Animals were sampled in spring, summer and autumn. We measured the activities of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) in individuals snap-frozen in the field immediately after collection. Acetylcholinesterase is likely related to animals' locomotor activity, while GST activity is related to the metabolic activity of an organism. Our study shows significantly lower AChE and GST activities in the cave population in comparison to both surface A. aquaticus populations. This confirms the assumption that cave A. aquaticus have lower locomotor and metabolic activity than surface A. aquaticus in their respective natural environments. In surface A. aquaticus populations, seasonal fluctuations in GST activity were observed, while these were less pronounced in individuals from the more stable cave environment. On the other hand, AChE activity was generally season-independent in all populations. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind conducted in A. aquaticus. Our results show that among closely related cave and surface A. aquaticus populations also physiological differences are present besides the morphological and genetic. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the biology of A. aquaticus and cave crustaceans in general.

Dataset Information

Developmental Transcriptomic Analysis of the Cave-Dwelling Crustacean, Asellus aquaticus.

Publications

Developmental Transcriptomic Analysis of the Cave-Dwelling Crustacean, <i>Asellus aquaticus</i>.

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