Integrative Transcriptome and Proteome Analysis of the Tube Foot and Adhesive Secretions of the Sea Urchin <i>Paracentrotus lividus</i>

• Main Authors: Robert Pjeta, Herbert Lindner, Leopold Kremser, Willi Salvenmoser, Daniel Sobral, Peter Ladurner, Romana Santos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: echinoderm; sea urchin; bioadhesion; differential rnaseq; mass spectrometry; in situ hybridization
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/3/946

Echinoderms, such as the rock-boring sea urchin <i>Paracentrotus lividus</i>, attach temporarily to surfaces during locomotion using their tube feet. They can attach firmly to any substrate and release from it within seconds through the secretion of unknown molecules. The composition of the adhesive, as well as the releasing secretion, remains largely unknown. This study re-analyzed a differential proteome dataset from Lebesgue et al. by mapping mass spectrometry-derived peptides to a <i>P. lividus</i> <i>de novo</i> transcriptome generated in this study. This resulted in a drastic increase in mapped proteins in comparison to the previous publication. The data were subsequently combined with a differential RNAseq approach to identify potential adhesion candidate genes. A gene expression analysis of 59 transcripts using whole mount in situ hybridization led to the identification of 16 transcripts potentially involved in bioadhesion. In the future these data could be useful for the production of synthetic reversible adhesives for industrial and medical purposes.