Meeting Abstract

11.3  Friday, Jan. 4  RNA-seq as a Tool to Understand the Evolution and Development of the Single-Chambered Eye: Transcriptomics of the Long-finned Squid, Doryteuthis (Loligo) pealeii KOENIG, KM*; MEYER, E; GROSS, JM; Univ. of Texas, Austin; Oregon State University; Univ. of Texas, Austin kmkoenig@utexas.edu

Cephalopods (Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish and Nautilus) are a group of highly successful mollusks with advanced cognitive capacity and complex body plans. As the field of evolution and development broadens, these organisms provide an ideal system to examine questions of parallel and convergent evolution of specific organ systems. Our interest in the squid Loligo pealeii is to further understand the evolution and development of complex image-forming eyes across the Metazoa. The subclass Coleoidea, which includes squid, octopus and cuttlefish, share a single-chambered image-forming eye, resembling the vertebrate eye. To begin to dissect the molecular and morphogenetic events that underpin the development of this complex organ and to facilitate molecular and functional analyses, we sequenced the embryonic transcriptome of L. pealeii. These data enabled us to analyze evolutionarily conserved eye-specific transcriptional cascades and provide a reference for RNA-seq experiments in the absence of a sequenced genome. We performed RNA-seq studies of isolated eye and optic lobe tissues from the developing embryo, quantifying changes in gene expression throughout distinct stages of eye morphogenesis. This work builds the foundation of a model to better understand developmental constraint as well as examine how convergent and parallel evolutionary processes impact the formation of complex organs such as the eye.