fruitless (fru) gene plays an important role in courtship, mating behavior and reproductive development of insectsand crustaceans. Artemia is not only the crucial live food in fish and crustacean larviculture, but also an ideal experimental organism for biological study. In this experiment, the open reading frame (ORF) of fru gene was obtained from the transcriptome of Artemia franciscana and analyzed bioinformatically. qPCR was used to study the expression characteristics of this gene at different stages of gonad development in the Artemia, and its function was explored by RNAi microinjection. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the ORF length of fru gene was 1 215 bp, which contains 404 amino acids, while its molecular weight and isoelectric point were 45.19 kDa and 5.28, and it was an acidic hydrophilic protein with no signal peptide or transmembrane structure; structural domain prediction showed that there are two structural domains of fru, BTB_POZ and HTH. The secondary structure is dominated by α-helix and irregular coil, and the tertiary structure corresponds to it. The qPCR results showed that the expression of fru gene showed a significant increase in late embryos stage, and its expression was significantly higher than that of early oocyte, later oocyte and early embryo stages in the ovary (P < 0.01); while the expression of fru gene also increased in immature stage of the testis, and its expression was significantly higher than that of early, middle and late maturation stages (P < 0.01). After RNA interference, we found that there was a significant decrease in the expression of the fru gene (P < 0.01), and all the offspring produced were cysts. This suggests that the fru gene has an important effect on reproduction and development of A. franciscana, and may be a key factor influencing the reproductive mode of Artemia. Through this study, we obtained important information about the role of fru gene in the reproductive development of Artemia and their related molecular mechanisms, which can help us better understand this important biological process.
| 科 Family | 属数 Number of genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) | 属 Genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹅膏菌科Amanitaceae | 2 | 11 | 5.26 | 鹅膏菌属 Amanita | 10 | 4.78 |
| 小菇科 Mycenaceae | 2 | 12 | 5.74 | 丝盖伞属 Inocybe | 5 | 2.39 |
| 多孔菌科 Polyporaceae | 8 | 14 | 6.70 | 蜡蘑属 Laccaria | 5 | 2.39 |
| 红菇科 Russulaceae | 3 | 23 | 11.00 | 小皮伞属 Marasmius | 6 | 2.87 |
| 小菇属 Mycena | 11 | 5.26 | ||||
| 光柄菇属 Pluteus | 5 | 2.39 | ||||
| 红菇属 Russula | 17 | 8.13 | ||||
| 栓菌属 Trametes | 5 | 2.39 |