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Gene expression profiles of dicyemid life-cycle stages may explain how dispersing larvae locate new hosts

Metazoans have evolved a great variety of life histories in response to environmental conditions. A unique example is encountered in dicyemid mesozoans. In addition to a highly simplified adult body comprising only ~ 30 cells, dicyemids exhibit a parasitic lifestyle that includes nematogens (asexual...

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Autores principales: Lu, Tsai-Ming, Furuya, Hidetaka, Satoh, Noriyuki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6854800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31754455
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40851-019-0146-y
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author Lu, Tsai-Ming
Furuya, Hidetaka
Satoh, Noriyuki
author_facet Lu, Tsai-Ming
Furuya, Hidetaka
Satoh, Noriyuki
author_sort Lu, Tsai-Ming
collection PubMed
description Metazoans have evolved a great variety of life histories in response to environmental conditions. A unique example is encountered in dicyemid mesozoans. In addition to a highly simplified adult body comprising only ~ 30 cells, dicyemids exhibit a parasitic lifestyle that includes nematogens (asexual reproductive adults), rhombogens (sexual reproductive adults), vermiform larvae generated by nematogens, and infusoriform larvae generated by rhombogens. However, due to the difficulties of observing microscopic endoparasites, the complex life cycle and biological functions of life-cycle stages of dicyemids have remained mysterious. Taking advantage of the recently decoded genome of Dicyema japonicum, we examined genes that undergird this lifestyle. Using stage-specific gene expression profiles, we found that biological processes associated with molecular transport, developmental regulation, and sensory response are specified at different stages. Together with the expression of potential neurotransmitters, we further suggest that apical cells in infusoriform larva probably serve sensory functions, although dicyemids have no nervous system. Gene expression profiles show that more genes are expressed in free-living infusoriform larvae than in the other three stages, and that some of these genes are likely involved in locating new hosts. These data provide molecular information about the unique lifestyle of dicyemids and illustrate how an extremely simplified endoparasite adapted and retained gene sets and morphological characters to complete its life cycle. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary information accompanies this paper at 10.1186/s40851-019-0146-y.
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spelling pubmed-68548002019-11-21 Gene expression profiles of dicyemid life-cycle stages may explain how dispersing larvae locate new hosts Lu, Tsai-Ming Furuya, Hidetaka Satoh, Noriyuki Zoological Lett Research Article Metazoans have evolved a great variety of life histories in response to environmental conditions. A unique example is encountered in dicyemid mesozoans. In addition to a highly simplified adult body comprising only ~ 30 cells, dicyemids exhibit a parasitic lifestyle that includes nematogens (asexual reproductive adults), rhombogens (sexual reproductive adults), vermiform larvae generated by nematogens, and infusoriform larvae generated by rhombogens. However, due to the difficulties of observing microscopic endoparasites, the complex life cycle and biological functions of life-cycle stages of dicyemids have remained mysterious. Taking advantage of the recently decoded genome of Dicyema japonicum, we examined genes that undergird this lifestyle. Using stage-specific gene expression profiles, we found that biological processes associated with molecular transport, developmental regulation, and sensory response are specified at different stages. Together with the expression of potential neurotransmitters, we further suggest that apical cells in infusoriform larva probably serve sensory functions, although dicyemids have no nervous system. Gene expression profiles show that more genes are expressed in free-living infusoriform larvae than in the other three stages, and that some of these genes are likely involved in locating new hosts. These data provide molecular information about the unique lifestyle of dicyemids and illustrate how an extremely simplified endoparasite adapted and retained gene sets and morphological characters to complete its life cycle. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary information accompanies this paper at 10.1186/s40851-019-0146-y. BioMed Central 2019-11-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6854800/ /pubmed/31754455 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40851-019-0146-y Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lu, Tsai-Ming
Furuya, Hidetaka
Satoh, Noriyuki
Gene expression profiles of dicyemid life-cycle stages may explain how dispersing larvae locate new hosts
title Gene expression profiles of dicyemid life-cycle stages may explain how dispersing larvae locate new hosts
title_full Gene expression profiles of dicyemid life-cycle stages may explain how dispersing larvae locate new hosts
title_fullStr Gene expression profiles of dicyemid life-cycle stages may explain how dispersing larvae locate new hosts
title_full_unstemmed Gene expression profiles of dicyemid life-cycle stages may explain how dispersing larvae locate new hosts
title_short Gene expression profiles of dicyemid life-cycle stages may explain how dispersing larvae locate new hosts
title_sort gene expression profiles of dicyemid life-cycle stages may explain how dispersing larvae locate new hosts
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6854800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31754455
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40851-019-0146-y
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