Meeting Abstract
Essential sugar absorption in animals has been demonstrated to occur by cleavage of polysaccharides into their monomeric form for transport across epithelial cells of the gastrointestinal tract. Recently, it has been suggested that the hepatopancreas of the American lobster, Homarus americanus, transports intact disaccharides across their epithelial cells. The purpose of the present study is to better assess the genetic characteristics of this novel transport mechanism by cloning the cDNA encoding the transport protein and determining its location of expression. To accomplish this goal, cDNA generated from adult male lobster hepatopancreas RNA and cDNA from a constructed library was used for PCR cloning. Additionally, in situ hybridization and quantitative RT-PCR were performed to localize the expression of transporter cDNA in the hepatopancreas and other tissues thought to utilize this transport mechanism. The partial DNA sequence that was obtained is homologous to a disaccharide transporter in Drosophila melanogaster. The analyses from in situ hybridization and q-RT-PCR suggest the expression of the transporter in various tissues, especially those related to digestion and absorption (hepatopancreas and intestine). These tentative results provide a foundation upon which the complete molecular characterization and organ distribution of this novel disaccharide transporter will be described.
