Developmental Changes in Hemocyanin Expression in the Dungeness Crab, Cancer magister

doi:10.1074/jbc.272.7.4347

Developmental Changes in Hemocyanin Expression in the Dungeness Crab, *Cancer magister**

From the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, University of Oregon, Charleston, Oregon 97420 and the Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403

^‡ To whom correspondence should be addressed:
Oregon Inst. of Marine Biology, 4619 Boat Basin Dr., Charleston, OR 97420
. Tel.: 541-888-2581 (ext. 214); Fax: 541-888-3250; E-mail: nterwill{at}oimb.uoregon.edu.

Abstract

The copper-based respiratory protein hemocyanin undergoes a developmental shift in subunit composition and function analogous to that seen in many hemoglobins. We studied hemocyanin gene expression in the Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) by Northern blot analysis. Animals were raised under controlled conditions, and total RNA was isolated from 13 developmental stages as well as from six tissue types in the adult animal. RNA was run on formaldehyde-agarose gels, blotted onto nylon membranes, and probed with ³²P-labeled cDNA probes specific for C. magister adult hemocyanin. Results indicate that adult hemocyanin biosynthesis occurs in hepatopancreas tissue only. Analysis of developmental stages shows that expression of adult-type hemocyanin, as indicated by the appearance of hemocyanin subunit 6 mRNA, begins during the sixth juvenile instar.

Footnotes

↵* This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grants DCB 89-08362 and IBN 92-17530 (to N. B. T.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
↵¹ The abbreviations used are:

Hc

hemocyanin

PCR

polymerase chain reaction

bp

base pair(s)

kb

kilobase pair(s).
↵² GenBank™ accession number U48881[GenBank] (Durstewitz, G., and Terwilliger, N. B. (1997) Mol. Biol. Evol., in press.
- Received June 17, 1996.
- Revision received November 18, 1996.