Identification of sperm proteins as candidate biomarkers for the analysis of reproductive isolation in Mytilus: a case study for the enkurin locus

Sperm proteins of the marine sessile mussels of the Mytilus edulis species complex are models to investigate reproductive isolation and speciation. This study aimed at identifying sperm proteins and their corresponding genes. This was aided by the use of monoclonal antibodies that preferentially bin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine biology 2012-10, Vol.159 (10), p.2195-2207
Main Authors: Bartel, Manuela, Hartmann, Stefanie, Lehmann, Karola, Postel, Kai, Quesada, Humberto, Philipp, Eva E. R., Heilmann, Katja, Micheel, Burkhard, Stuckas, Heiko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Biomarkers
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Case studies
Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetic markers
Life Sciences
Marine
Marine & Freshwater Sciences
Marine biology
Microbiology
Mollusks
Monoclonal antibodies
Mussels
Mytilus edulis
Oceanography
Original Paper
Proteins
Sea water ecosystems
Speciation
Spermatozoa
Synecology
Techniques
Zoology
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Summary:Sperm proteins of the marine sessile mussels of the Mytilus edulis species complex are models to investigate reproductive isolation and speciation. This study aimed at identifying sperm proteins and their corresponding genes. This was aided by the use of monoclonal antibodies that preferentially bind to yet unknown sperm molecules. By identifying their target molecules, this approach identified proteins with relevance to Mytilus sperm function. This procedure identified 16 proteins, for example, enkurin, laminin, porin and heat shock proteins. The potential use of these proteins as genetic markers to study reproductive isolation is exemplified by analysing the enkurin locus. Enkurin evolution is driven by purifying selection, the locus displays high levels of intraspecific variation and species-specific alleles group in distinct phylogenetic clusters. These findings characterize enkurin as informative candidate biomarker for analyses of clinal variation and differential introgression in hybrid zones, for example, to understand determinants of reproductive isolation in Baltic Mytilus populations.
ISSN:0025-3162
1432-1793
DOI:10.1007/s00227-012-2005-7