Transcriptional Inhibition of Sp-IAG by Crustacean Female Sex Hormone in the Mud Crab, Scylla paramamosain

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences 2020-07, Vol.21 (15), p.5300
• Main Authors: Jiang, Qingling, Lu, Bei, Wang, Guizhong, Ye, Haihui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activator protein 1; Animals; Arthropod Proteins - biosynthesis; Arthropod Proteins - genetics; Binding sites; Brachyura - genetics; Brachyura - metabolism; Crustacea; crustacean; crustacean female sex hormone; Crustaceans; Cytomegalovirus; Efficiency; Female; Females; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation - physiology; Gene regulation; Insulin; insulin-like androgenic hormone; Invertebrate Hormones - genetics; Invertebrate Hormones - metabolism; Males; Mud; Mutation; Plasmids; Proteins; Reptiles & amphibians; RNA-mediated interference; Scylla; Scylla paramamosain; Sex differentiation; Sex Differentiation - physiology; Sex hormones; Spermatogenesis; Transcription factors; transcription regulation; Transcription, Genetic - physiology
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms21155300

In crustaceans, the regulation of sex differentiation is mediated by insulin-like androgenic hormone (IAG) and crustacean female sex hormone (CFSH). CFSH is reported to inhibit IAG gene ( ) expression in the mud crab , but the regulatory mechanism is not well understood. A 2674 bp 5' flanking contains many potential transcription factor binding sites. In this study, analysis of serially deleted 5' flanking and site-directed mutation (SDM) of transcription factor binding sites of the same gene showed that the promoter activity of reporter vectors with Sox-5-binding site, signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT)-binding site and activator protein 1 (AP-1)-binding site were significantly higher than that of vectors without these regions, suggesting that they were involved in transcriptional regulation of expression. The expression analysis of these transcription factor showed that there was no difference in the level of mRNA in and in androgenic gland treated with recombinant CFSH, but expression of was significantly reduced, suggesting that CFSH regulates the expression of , inhibiting its function to regulate . Further experiment revealed that RNAi mediated gene knockdown reduced the expression of . These results suggested that CFSH regulates by inhibiting STAT. This is a pioneering finding on the transcriptional mechanism of gene in crustaceans.