De novo transcriptome of the European brittle star Amphiura filiformis pluteus larvae

• Background: In non-classical model species, Next Generation Sequencing increases the ability to analyze the expression of transcripts/genes. In this study, paired-end Illumina HiSeq sequencing technology has been employed to describe a larval transcriptome generated from 64 h post-fertilization pluteus larvae of the brittle star Amphiura filiformis. We focused our analysis on the detection of actors involved in the opsin based light perception, respectively the opsins and the phototransduction actors. Methods & results: In this research, about 47 million high quality readswere generated and 86,572 total unigenes were predicted after de novo assembly. Of all the larval unigenes, 18% show significant matches with reference online databases. 46% of annotated larval unigenes were significantly similar to transcripts from the purple sea urchin. COG, GO and KEGG analyses were performed on predicted unigenes. Regarding the opsin-based photoreception process, even if possible actors of ciliary and rhabdomeric phototransduction cascadeswere detected, no ciliary or rhabdomeric opsinwas identified in these larvae. Additionally, partial non-visual RGR (retinal G protein coupled receptor) opsin mRNAs were identified,possibly indicating the presence of visual cycle reaction in early pluteus larvae. The eye morphogene Pax 6 was also identified in the pluteus transcriptome. Conclusions: Contrary to sea-urchin larvae, brittle star larvae appear to be characterized by an absence of visuallike opsins. These RNA-seq data also provide a useful resource for the echinoderm research community and researchers with an interest in larval biology. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Genetik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Genetics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Echinodermata

Larval stage

Paired-end Illumina Sequencing

Photoreception

RGR opsin

Transcriptome

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)