Project Status - Active
- Identify proteins that play a role in geoduck reproductive maturation
- Characterize tissue specific transcriptomic resources for the geoduck
- Crandall - Histological characterization
- Timmins-Schiffman - Proteomic characterization
Summary: Maturation processes in marine molluscs are not well-characterized and large gaps in our understanding remain. Many studies have concluded that steroids are involved in mollusc reproduction, but the majority of these studies were targeted at vertebrate steroids that may not play a role given the apparent lack of functional receptors for androgens and estrogens. The topdown approaches used in the past focused on reproduction molecules from divergent phyla may be missing the mark for the phylum mollusca. An entirely different mechanism for reproductive maturation processing may be at play. While the existing evidence does not definitively rule out a role for steroids, the validity of a different, bottom-up approach is evident. Combining highthroughput proteomic data acquisition with comprehensive bioinformatic data analysis as proposed here, will lead to the discovery of factors controlling maturation processes in this diverse phylum.