Differential expression of prawn brain proteins in the context of dominance hierarchies

Abstract

Adult prawns (M. rosenbergii) develop through three morphological types (small [SC], yellow [YC], and blue claws [BC]), each representing a level in a group's dominance hierarchy, BCs being the most dominant. We are interested in understanding the role played by peptides in the mechanisms underlying the establishment of dominance hierarchies in this prawn. One possibility is that modulatory peptides are differentially expressed in the three morphotypes. We performed SELDI‐TOF mass spectrometry experiments to study protein expression differences among the brains of BC, YC and SC male prawns. Preliminary analysis identified 13 differentially expressed protein peaks. Nine of them differed between BCs and YCs, six between YCs and SCs, and three between BCs and SCs. Data also revealed that five peaks differed across all three morphotypes. These results suggest that there are proteins that are expressed differently across the brains of the three male morphotypes, suggesting they may correlate with the corresponding dominance status. Experiments using 2D‐DIGE and tandem mass spectrometry are being performed to confirm those differentially expressed proteins to then determine whether they play a role in modulating behaviors associated with dominance status.Supported by: MBRS SCORE S06GM008224, MRISP MH48190, RCMI G12RR03051, MBRS RISE R25‐GM061838, NINDS SNRP U54NS0430311