DIFFERENTIAL LIFE HISTORY PHASE EXPRESSION IN TWO COEXISTING SPECIES OF SCYTOSIPHON (PHAEOPHYCEAE) IN NORTHERN CHILE1

The identity of two phaeophycean taxa that monopolized the middle‐lower rocky intertidal zone of a coastal area chronically exposed to copper mine wastes in northern Chile was unraveled. One of them was preliminarily identified as the gametophytic stage of Scytosiphon lomentaria (Lyngbye) Link. The other, a dark crust, resembled the alternate stage of some Scytosiphon species. Comparative analysis of morphology, life history, and DNA sequences strongly suggests that crusts corresponded to sporophytic S. tenellus Kogame and confirm that erect thalli belonged to S. lomentaria. A clear segregation of erect and crustose thalli was found using internal transcribed spacer region 1 and RUBISCO spacer sequences. Furthermore, whereas crusts always grouped with S. tenellus, erect thalli always grouped with S. lomentaria. Life history studies failed to connect the two entities. First, field‐collected S. tenellus produced progeny that either recycled the crust, which reproduced by unilocular zoidangia, or developed into erect thalli. The latter, unlike typical gametophytic S. lomentaria, developed patchy sori of plurilocular zoidangia. Second, S. lomentaria displayed a direct‐type life cycle, in which progeny from erect individuals only developed into erect thalli and produced only plurilocular zoidangia. This constitutes the first experimental study on Scytosiphon from the Pacific coast of South America and the first report of S. tenellus on this coast. It is also the first report of the crustose stage of Scytosiphon appearing as a perennial and dominant algal species in a temperate rocky intertidal system.     

Identification and comparative analysis of the ovary and testis microRNAome of mud crab Scylla paramamosain

The role of microRNA (miRNA) in reproductive regulation is attracting increasingly more attention. In this study, we obtained 9,643,114 and 15,498,999 raw reads from the ovary and testis library of important farmed mud crab Scylla paramamosain, respectively. After data mining, a total of 4,096,464 and 11,737,973 mappable small RNA sequences remained for analysis. By mapping to the reference genome and expressed sequence tag (EST) of Daphnia pulex and other crabs, a total of 1,417 miRNAs were identified. On the basis of 1,417 miRNAs, 514 (36.3%) unique miRNAs coexpressed in the gonad of female and male libraries, and 336 (23.7%) and 567 (40%) expressed preferentially in female and male libraries, respectively. Analysis of library sequencing data resulted in the identi?cation of 108 miRNAs (out of 1,417; 7.6%) that showed signi?cant differential expression between the two samples. Of these, 13 miRNAs were expressed only in the testis, two miRNAs were expressed only in the ovary, and 93 miRNAs were coexpressed: 57 (61.3%) were upregulated (ovary/testis) and 36 (38.7%) were downregulated (ovary/testis). To confirm the expression patterns of the predicted miRNAs, we randomly selected 14 candidate miRNAs from 108 differentially expressed miRNAs and performed stem–loop real time quantitative PCR (RT‐qPCR) assays in five ovary developing stages. Five miRNAs showed similar expression patterns in almost every stage as those revealed by identification of differentially expressed genes (IDEG6) analysis. The above five miRNAs were predicted to match the 3′‐untranslated region of the published S. paramamosain gene. Four out of five miRNA had a regulation effect on many genes, especially the genes related to gonadal development.     

基于比较转录组分析海洋弧菌X511的褐藻胶代谢途径

【目的】从北海涠洲岛海域腐烂的马尾藻中分离得到的海洋弧菌(Vibrio X511)具有较强的利用褐藻胶能力,本文利用转录组测序的方法以研究弧菌X511的褐藻胶代谢途径。【方法】采用Illumina Hi Seq2500测序平台对菌株在褐藻胶及葡萄糖培养下的转录组进行测序;比较和分析差异转录本,利用荧光定量PCR验证测序结果;采用GO(Gene Ontology)和KEGG(Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes)对差异转录本进行功能和Pathway注释。【结果】经比较发现,菌株在褐藻胶培养下相对于葡萄糖的培养共有2024个差异表达基因,其中1066个基因上调,958个基因下调;某些普遍存在于代谢途径中的基因在不同培养条件下也存在差异表达;海洋弧菌X511中涉及褐藻胶利用的所有基因以及合成乙醇的关键基因其转录量均有一定程度的上调;此外,通过分析发现该菌株具有独特的褐藻胶利用方式,其中的一个代谢过程尚未在弧菌中被报道。【结论】成功解析了海洋弧菌X511的褐藻胶代谢途径,丰富了生物方法降解褐藻胶的研究,为大型海藻生物质能源的研究提供有价值的数据支持。