TY - JOUR
T1 - Cloning of an insulin-like androgenic gland factor (IAG) from the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus
T2 - Implications for eyestalk regulation of IAG expression
AU - Chung, J. Sook
AU - Manor, R.
AU - Sagi, Amir
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to the staff of the blue crab hatchery and Aquaculture Research Center (ARC, Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, Baltimore, MD) for supplying young juvenile crabs and maintaining re-circulated, closed artificial seawater system. We wish to thank Tomer Ventura and Ohad Rosen for their valuable comments on the manuscript. The research was supported by Research Grant MB-8714-08 from the United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD) .
PY - 2011/1/1
Y1 - 2011/1/1
N2 - In malacostracan crustaceans, sex differentiation is uniquely regulated by a hormone secreted by the male-specific androgenic gland (AG). An isopod AG hormone was the first to be structurally elucidated and was found to belong to the insulin superfamily of proteins. Recently, it has been found that the AGs of several decapod crustaceans express insulin-like androgenic gland factors (IAGs), whose function is believed to be similar to that of the isopod AG hormone. Here we report the isolation from the blue crab Callinectes sapidus of the full-length cDNA encoding a candidate insulin-like AG hormone, termed Cas-IAG. The predicted protein Cas-IAG was encoded as a precursor consisting of a signal peptide, the B chain, the C peptide, and the A chain in that order. While the AG was the main source of Cas-IAG expression, as found in other decapod species, the hepatopancreas of male Callinectes sapidus crabs displayed minor Cas-IAG expression. Eyestalk ablation confirmed the presence of a possible endocrine axis between the eyestalk ganglia and the AG, implying that Cas-IAG expression is negatively regulated by (a) substance(s) present in the eyestalk ganglia.
AB - In malacostracan crustaceans, sex differentiation is uniquely regulated by a hormone secreted by the male-specific androgenic gland (AG). An isopod AG hormone was the first to be structurally elucidated and was found to belong to the insulin superfamily of proteins. Recently, it has been found that the AGs of several decapod crustaceans express insulin-like androgenic gland factors (IAGs), whose function is believed to be similar to that of the isopod AG hormone. Here we report the isolation from the blue crab Callinectes sapidus of the full-length cDNA encoding a candidate insulin-like AG hormone, termed Cas-IAG. The predicted protein Cas-IAG was encoded as a precursor consisting of a signal peptide, the B chain, the C peptide, and the A chain in that order. While the AG was the main source of Cas-IAG expression, as found in other decapod species, the hepatopancreas of male Callinectes sapidus crabs displayed minor Cas-IAG expression. Eyestalk ablation confirmed the presence of a possible endocrine axis between the eyestalk ganglia and the AG, implying that Cas-IAG expression is negatively regulated by (a) substance(s) present in the eyestalk ganglia.
KW - Androgenic gland
KW - Androgenic gland hormone
KW - Callinectes sapidus
KW - Decapod crustaceans
KW - Insulin-like factor
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79959885354&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ygcen.2011.04.017
DO - 10.1016/j.ygcen.2011.04.017
M3 - Article
C2 - 21596044
AN - SCOPUS:79959885354
SN - 0016-6480
VL - 173
SP - 4
EP - 10
JO - General and Comparative Endocrinology
JF - General and Comparative Endocrinology
IS - 1
ER -