Effect of pearl culture on N19 and Prismalin-14 genes expression in the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata

To investigate the effect of pearl culture on the expressions of genes encoding shell matrix proteins, the relative expression levels of N19 and Prismalin-14 genes in the pearl-culturing oysters (PC) and non-pearl-culturing oysters (NPC) Pinctada fucata were investigated by using RT-FQ-PCR. The results show that the expressions of both N19 and Prismalin-14 are extremely weak or negative in muscle, liver, gonad, bowel or gill of PC and NPC, but positive in the mantle. The expression of N19 is obviously in pearl sac, while of Prismalin-14 is negative. The expressions of both N19 and Prismalin-14 in PC mantle are higher than that in NPC, which indicate pearl culture may promote expressions of some shell matrix protein genes. The relative expression level of Prismalin-14 is the highest (P0.01) in PC mantle, which is 1.23-fold greater thanthat of NPC mantle, 25.04-fold greater thanN19 in PC mantle, 41.04-fold greater than N19 in NPC mantle, suggesting that pearl oysters may demand much more Prismalin-14 than N19 does. Meanwhile, the relative expression level of N19 is the highest in the pearl sac (P0.01), being 11.58-fold greater than that of the PC mantle, 18.97-fold greaterthanthat of the NPC mantle, suggesting that pearl growth may demand much more N19 than shell growth does. This study can be of benefit to further studies on the impact of pearl culture on the expressions of other shell matrix protein genes, and to the correlation between pearl quality and the differential expression of shell matrix protein genes in pearl sac as well.