ANALYSIS OF C-TYPE LECTIN DOMAIN FAMILY MEMBER FROM HEPATOPANCREAS AND OVARY OF THE SPINY LOBSTER Panulirus homarus BY TRANSCRIPTOME PROFILING

The spiny lobster P. homarus, is an important decapod cultured in the cages in the coastal area of many region in China.  Recent outbreaks of diseases have impacted the lobster culture industry resulted in large economic loss.  Like other invertebrates, lobster lack an acquired immune system, and have to rely on the innate immune system to resist the invasion of the pathogens.  However, few molecular studies were performed to understand the immune mechanism of the lobster in response to pathogen infection.  To explore the immune-related genes immune mechanism in lobster, we have analyzed the hepatopancreas and ovary transcriptome profiles of P. homarus using a deep sequencing approach with a Illumina HQ2000 platform.  A total of 158,380 unigenes were obtained.  Of which 84256 were derived from the hepatopancreas- and 74124 were derived from the ovary respectively. Altogether there are 39 C-type lectin identified in both tissues suggesting the lectins are also involve in a diversified function of immune response.   WSSV and bacteria challenge experiment revealed that only a small number of lectins were activated suggesting the function of most lectin are highly specific and different lectins may be responsible for the response of other pathogens.  The results of this study provide a general background information of the first line defense mechanism of the lobster.