Researchers of IOCAS conducted a comparative proteomic study on the larvae of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas, which revealed novel aspects in the development of bivalves.

By comparing the proteomes of the larvae at two developmental stages, proteins related to the development of muscle, nervous system etc. were identified. Furthermore, “quality-control” proteins were emphasized for the first time in the development of bivalves. Researchers also found that cell division was slow down after the shells were fully developed in the larvae, which were then further certified through western blotting and realtime PCR assay. It was proposed that, rather than cell proliferation, cell shape changes and rearrangements might contribute to the complex morphological changes during organogenesis in the larvae at this stage. All the above findings would bring lights to further studies on the development biology of bivalves.

The article “Pin Huan, Hongxia Wang, Bo Dong, Baozhong Liu*. Identification of differentially expressed proteins involved in the early larval development of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas.” was published in Journal of Proteomics recently (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1874391912003211).