鲍幼虫变态分子机制的研究进展

Progress Research on the Molecular Mechanism of Abalone Larvae Metamorphosis

综述了鲍幼虫变态及其分子机制的研究进展.鲍因其幼虫营卵黄营养,且同昆虫和蛙类相比,鲍幼虫变态速度快、存在提早发育(‘anticipatory’developmental program)现象,是研究贝类乃至海洋无脊椎动物变态现象的理想模式.早期研究采用药理学和电生理学方法发现了GABA等能够诱导鲍变态的物质,并且提出了变态过程信号通路,但调节幼虫变态的分子机制仍然所知甚少.研究人员采用差异显示PCR和基因芯片等手段获得了一些变态前后差异表达的基因.但是变态是由众多的基因和信号分子共同决定和影响的.传统获得差异基因的方法效率低、获得基因数量少、受公布的EST(表达序列标签)限制大,所以调控变态的分子网络和机制还尚未建立,缺乏对调控这一细胞过程的整体认识.转录组学分析获得大量变态差异基因,并且有助于建立差异基因相互作用网络,是研究变态分子机制的新方向.此外,变态差异基因的功能验证和注释是鲍变态分子机制研究的另一问题,基因干扰可能是解决方向之一.

The metamorphosis of molluscs larvae is an important biological question.Abalone is one of an ideal model for mollusc metamorphosis and even marine invertebrates because abalone larvae are lecithotrophic（non-feeding）,have more rapid metamorphosis than insect and batrachia.Early studies discovered that some material could induce abalone larvae metamorphosis,by pharmacology and electrophysiology.Furthermore,some signal pathways of metamorphosis were developed.However,there is little knowledge of molecular mechanism regulating abalone larvae metamorphosis.Some different expressive genes were found by different display RT-PCR（DDRT-PCR） and gene microarray.Moreover,the metamorphosis is decided and influenced by numerous genes and signals.The traditional method has low efficiency and gets few differential expression genes.Furthermore,the number of EST（expressed sequence tag）is an important limit to the traditional method.So the molecular network and mechanism of metamorphosis have not been established.There is little knowledge of the cellular process.The transcriptome analysis of metamorphosis can acquire a large number of differential expression genes,contribute to building interaction network of differential expression genes,and is a new orientation of the study on molecular mechanism of metamorphosis.In addition,it is another problem to confirm and annotate these different expressed genes.Gene interference may be a solution.This paper summarizes the advances on metamorphosis of abalone larvae and its molecular mechanism.