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

• Published in: Frontiers in Physiology
• Main Authors: Wu, Changlu, Jiang, Qiuyun, Wei, Lei, Cai, Zhongqiang, Chen, Jun, Yu, Wenchao, He, Cheng, Wang, Jiao, Guo, Wen, Wang, Xiaotong
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
• Subjects: Physiology; Pacific; Crassostrea gigas; Pacific oyster
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5868073/; https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.00221

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.