A Rhodopsin-Like Gene May Be Associated With the Light-Sensitivity of Adult Pacific Oyster Crassostrea gigas

• Main Authors: Changlu Wu, Qiuyun Jiang, Lei Wei, Zhongqiang Cai, Jun Chen, Wenchao Yu, Cheng He, Jiao Wang, Wen Guo, Xiaotong Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-03-01
• Series: Frontiers in Physiology
• Subjects: adult oyster; light-sensitivity; RNAi; mantle; rhodopsin-like superfamily member gene
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphys.2018.00221/full

Light-sensitivity is important for mollusc survival, as it plays a vital role in reproduction and predator avoidance. Light-sensitivity has been demonstrated in the adult Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas, but the genes associated with light-sensitivity remain unclear. In the present study, we designed experiments to identify the genes associated with light-sensitivity in adult oysters. First, we assessed the Pacific oyster genome and identified 368 genes annotated with the terms associated with light-sensitivity. Second, the function of the four rhodopsin-like superfamily member genes was tested by using RNAi. The results showed that the highest level of mRNA expression of the vision-related genes was in the mantle; however, this finding is not true for all oyster genes. Interestingly, we also found four rhodopsin-like superfamily member genes expressed at an very high level in the mantle tissue. In the RNAi experiment, when one of rhodopsin-like superfamily member genes (CGI_1001253) was inhibited, the light-sensitivity capacity of the injected oysters was significantly reduced, suggesting that CGI_10012534 may be associated with light-sensitivity in the adult Pacific oyster.