Abstract
Successful papillary adhesion is the first essential step for serious ascidian biofouling in marine ecosystems; however, the mechanisms of papillary adhesion have not been fully elucidated. Here, we employed transcriptome sequencing to assess the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between papillae and remaining body in the larvae of the highly fouling invasive model ascidian Ciona robusta. Enrichment results for DEGs showed that papillae were adhesive structures with the combined functions of substrate recognition, environmental perception, and adhesive protein synthesis and secretion. Two candidate ascidian papilla adhesive proteins (APAPs), APAP-1 and APAP-2, were identified, expressed, and purified in vitro. Surface coating tests showed that APAP-1 was a cohesive protein while APAP-2 was an interfacial protein involved in the adhesion between papillae and material surface. Collectively, the obtained DEGs and adhesive proteins provide candidates to deeply understand molecular mechanisms of underwater adhesion and further develop anti-fouling strategies in marine ecosystems.
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Data availability
All the raw sequencing data of transcriptome sequencing were deposited in the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) under the accession number (PRJNA795827).
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Acknowledgements
Great thanks to Profs. Zunchun Zhou and Bei Jiang for their assistance in ascidian collection. Great thanks to the Associate Editor, Dr. Mathias Wegner, and anonymous reviewers for their detailed, insightful, and constructive comments on early versions of this paper.
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42076098 and 32061143012), Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 2018054).
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Conceptualization: ABZ and SGL; methodology: JWC and XL; formal analysis: JWC; investigation: JWC and RYF; writing—original draft: JWC; writing—review and editing: ABZ, SGL, and XNH; supervision: ABZ and SGL; project administration: ABZ and SGL; funding acquisition: ABZ and SGL.
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Cheng, J., Li, S., Li, X. et al. Molecular functional analyses of larval adhesion in a highly fouling invasive model ascidian. Mar Biol 169, 120 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04107-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04107-x