CACHE: CAlcium in a CHanging Environment

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Organizational Unit

Publications

Dilution of seawater affects the Ca2 + transport in the outer mantle epithelium of crassostrea gigas

Publication . Sillanpää, J. Kirsikka; Cardoso, João CR; Félix, Rute; Anjos, Liliana; Power, Deborah; Sundell, Kristina

Varying salinities of coastal waters are likely to affect the physiology and ion transport capabilities of calcifying marine organisms such as bivalves. To investigate the physiological effect of decreased environmental salinity in bivalves, adult oysters (Crassostrea gigas) were exposed for 14 days to 50% seawater (14) and the effects on mantle ion transport, electrophysiology and the expression of Ca2+ transporters and channels relative to animals maintained in full strength sea water (28) was evaluated. Exposure of oysters to a salinity of 14 decreased the active mantle transepithelial ion transport and specifically affected Ca2+ transfer. Gene expression of the Na+/K+-ATPase and the sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase was decreased whereas the expression of the T-type voltage-gated Ca channel and the Na+/Ca2+-exchanger increased compared to animals maintained in full SW. The results indicate that decreased environmental salinities will most likely affect not only osmoregulation but also bivalve biomineralization and shell formation.

2020Journal article

Open access

Cells to shells: the genomics of mollusc exoskeletons

Publication . Power, Deborah; Sundell, Kristina; Clark, M. S.

In our changing world there is a critical need for scientists to provide evidence-based analyses to underpin future predictions of ecosystem functioning, particularly with regard to food security and ecosystem services. Climate change is increasingly impacting on our daily lives and nowhere is this more prescient than the marine environment with the increasing acidification of the World's oceans, commonly known as Ocean Acidification (OA).

2016-07Journal article

Restricted access

Allatostatin-type A, kisspeptin and galanin GPCRs and putative ligands as candidate regulatory factors of mantle function

Publication . Cardoso, João CR; Félix, Rute C.; Bjarnmark, Nadege; Power, Deborah

Allatostatin-type A (AST-A), kisspeptin (KISS) and galanin (GAL) G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) systems share a common ancestral origin in arthropods and the vertebrates where they regulate metabolism and reproduction. The molluscs are the second most diverse phylum in the animal kingdom, they occupy an important phylogenetic position, and their genome is more similar to deuterostomes than the arthropods and nematodes and thus they are good models for studies of gene family evolution and function. This mini-review intends to extend the current knowledge about AST-A, KISS and GAL GPCR system evolution and their putative function in the mollusc mantle. Comparative evolutionary analysis of the target GPCR systems was established by identifying homologues in genomes and tissue transcriptome datasets available for molluscs and comparing them to those of other metazoan systems. Studies in arthropods have revealed the existence of the AST-A system but the loss of homologues of the KISS and GAL systems. Homologues of the insect AST-AR and vertebrate KISSR genes were found in molluscs but putative GALR genes were absent. Receptor gene number suggested that members of this family have suffered lineage specific evolution during the molluscan radiation. In molluscs, orthologues of the insect AST-A peptides were not identified but buccalin peptides that are structurally related were identified and are putative receptor agonists. The identification of AST-AR and KISSR genes in molluscs strengthens the hypotheses that in metazoans members of the AST-AR subfamily share evolutionary proximity with KISSRs. The variable number of receptors and large repertoire of buccalin peptides may be indicative of the functional diversity of the AST-AR/IGSSR systems in molluscs. The identification of AST-A and KISS receptors and ligands in the mantle transcriptome indicates that in molluscs they may have acquired a novel function and may play a role in shell development or sensory detection in the mantle.

2016Journal article

Open access