Meeting Abstract
Crustaceans and insects share the mechanism of a molt cycle in which their chitinous exoskeleton is periodically shed to enable growth and metamorphosis. This cycle is a major event in skeletal assembly comprising physiological changes and typical endocrine control and behavior. Numerous molt related genes are involved in these events, therefore studying these genes is of importance when investigating crustaceans and insects. Using NGS technology we constructed a molt related transcriptom library and developed a novel multi gene expression approach, binary patterning. Our approach is of particular interest for molt cycle studies since it is a simplifying tool that gives an integrative temporal picture for such a complex process. The binary patterning was used to study the transcriptomic picture during molt cycle of the crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus in two exoskeletal forming epithelia, the gastrolith and the mandible cuticle. An enrichment test revealed that chitin metabolism related genes are differentially expressed in each of the studied tissues. The functions of the chitin related transcripts were assigned to pathways mapped by a generalized pancrustacean-based KEGG. The activity of the forming epithelia of the gastrolith was detected mostly during premolt while in the mandible cuticle it was active throughout the entire molt cycle. Our results give a highly integrative view of chitin metabolism in exoskeletal tissues of a crustacean. Such binary patterning approach could be applicable for investigating molt cycle in other organisms of the pancrustacean group and might shed light on temporal and spatial aspects of such a complex biological mechanism in a simplifying manner.
