FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENTIATION IN BRYOZOAN COLONY: A PROTEOMIC ANALYSIS
V.A. Kutyumov,1,* A.L. Maltseva,1 O.N. Kotenko,1 A.N. Ostrovsky 1,2
1 St. Petersburg State University, Department of Invertebrate Zoology, St. Petersburg, 199034,
and 2 University of Vienna, Department of Palaeontology, 1090;
* e-mail: mcdanaan@yandex.ru
Bryozoans are typical modular organisms. They consist of repetitive structural units, the zooids. Bryozoan colonies grow by zooidal budding, with the distribution pattern of the
budding loci underlying the diversity of colony forms. Budding is usually restricted to the zooids at the periphery of the colony, which form a "growing edge" or local terminal growth
zones. Non-budding parts of the colony can be functionally subdivided, too. In many species colonies consists of regular, often repetitive zones of feeding and non-feeding modules,
associated with a periodical degeneration and regeneration of the polypide, retractile tentacle crown with a gut and the accompanying musculature. So, there is functional differentiation
in bryozoan colonies but its mechanisms are unknown. Presumably, budding and/or polypide recycling in different colony parts are induced or inhibited by certain determinants of
functional specialization. An effective tool of their identification is the comparison of proteomes of functionally different zones. Here we report the results of proteomic analysis of three
bryozoan species from the White Sea, which have a different colony form: Flustrellidra hispida, Terminoflustra membranaceotruncata and Securiflustra securifrons.
Using differential two-dimensional electrophoresis (2D-DIGE), we compared proteomes of the growing edge and the zones consisting of feeding and non-feeding zooids in these species.
We estimated the overall proteome variability, revealed proteins whose relative abundance gradually changed along the proximal-distal colony axis and suggested that they might be
involved in the functional differentiation of the colony.
Key words:
Bryozoa, functional differentiation, modular organisms, proteomic analysis, 2D-DIGE
| Back
| Contents
| Main |
|
