Open Accessfam20C participates in the shell formation in the pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata
Author(s) -
Jinzhe Du,
Chuang Liu,
Guangrui Xu,
Jun Xie,
Liping Xie,
Rongqing Zhang
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/s41598-018-21797-w
Subject(s) - pinctada fucata , pearl oyster , fishery , oyster , pearl , biology , geography , archaeology
Kinase-family with sequence similarity 20, member C (Fam20C) is a protein kinase, which can phosphorylate biomineralization related proteins in vertebrate animals. However, the function of Fam20C in invertebrate animals especially the role in biomineralization is still unknown. Herein, we cloned the cDNA of fam20 C from the pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata . It is showed that the expression of fam20 C in the mantle edge was much higher than other tissues. In situ hybridization showed that fam20 C was expressed mostly in the outer epithelial cells of the middle fold, indicating it may play important roles in the shell formation. Besides, fam20 C expression increased greatly in the D-shape stage of pearl oyster development, when the shell was first formed. During the shell repair process, the expression level of fam20 C increased 1.5 times at 6 h after shell notching. Knockdown of fam20 C in vivo by RNA interference resulted in abnormally stacking of calcium carbonate crystals at the edges of nacre tablets, showing direct evidence that fam20 C participates in the shell formation. This study provides an insight into the role of kinase protein in the shell formation in mollusk and broaden our understanding of biomineralization mechanism.