Meeting Abstract

P2.36  Monday, Jan. 5  Nuclear DNA content variation in decapod crustaceans: Does hypertrophic growth affect genome size in muscle fibers? JIMENEZ, A.G.*; KINSEY, S.T.; DILLAMAN, R.; KAPRAUN, D.F.; University of North Carolina Wilmington agj6818@uncw.edu

Decapod crustacean anaerobic muscle fibers grow hypertrophically, leading to extremely large fiber sizes in adults, while juvenile animals have muscle cells that fall in the normal cell size range. We were interested in examining the nuclear genome variation in cells that increase in size throughout ontogeny. A DNA-localizing fluorochrome DAPI (4, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) and RBC (chicken erythrocytes) standard was used with image analysis and static microspectrophotometry to estimate nuclear DNA contents in four decapod species including a portunid crab species, Callinectes sapidus, a grass shrimp species, Palaeomonetes pugio, a penaid shrimp species, Penaeus aztecus, and a lobster species, Panulirus argus at juvenile and adult life stages. C-values (2C nuclear DNA contents) derived from diploid (4C) hemocytes, range from 1.05 – 4.35 pg. Nuclear DNA content increase was correlated with muscular hypertrophy, and intracellular variation (endopolyploidy) of DNA contents of 8 -32 C was demonstrated. Correlations between genome size and phylogeny are discussed in four different species of phylogenetically distant and morphologically and developmentally different decapod crustaceans.