Expression of an Androgenic Gland-Specific Insulin-Like Peptide during the Course of Prawn Sexual and Morphotypic Differentiation

Tomer Ventura, Rivka Manor, Eliahu D. Aflalo, Simy Weil, Isam Khalaila, Ohad Rosen, Amir Sagi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The crustacean male-specific androgenic gland (AG) regulates sexual differentiation. In the prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii , silencing an AG-specific insulin-like encoding transcript ( Mr-IAG ) inhibited the development of male sexual characters, suggesting that Mr-IAG is a key androgenic hormone. We used recombinant pro-Mr-IAG peptide to generate antibodies that recognized the peptide in AG cells and extracts, as verified by mass spectrometry. We revealed the temporal expression pattern of Mr-IAG and studied its relevance to the timetable of sex differentiation processes in juveniles and after puberty. Mr-IAG was expressed from as early as 20 days after metamorphosis, prior to the appearance of external male sexual characters. Mr-IAG expression was lower in the less reproductively active orange-clawed males than in both the dominant blue-clawed males and the actively sneak mating small males. These results suggest a role for Mr-IAG both in the timing of male sexual differentiation and in regulating reproductive strategies.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-11
Number of pages11
JournalISRN Endocrinology
Volume2011
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 Apr 2011

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