Abstract
The encystment of many ciliates is an advanced survival strategy against adversity and the most important reason for ciliates existence worldwide. However, the molecular mechanism for the encystment of free-living ciliates is poorly understood. Here, we performed comparative transcriptomic analysis of dormant cysts and trophonts from Pseudourostyla cristata using transcriptomics, qRT-PCR and bioinformatic techniques. We identified 2565 differentially expressed unigenes between the dormant cysts and the trophonts. The total number of differentially expressed genes in GO database was 1752. The differential unigenes noted to the GO terms were 1993. These differential categories were mainly related to polyamine transport, pectin decomposition, cytoplasmic translation, ribosome, respiratory chain, ribosome structure, ion channel activity, and RNA ligation. A total of 224 different pathways were mapped. Among them, 184 pathways were upregulated, while 162 were downregulated. Further investigation showed that the calcium and AMPK signaling pathway had important induction effects on the encystment. In addition, FOXO and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis signaling pathway jointly regulated the encystment. Based on these findings, we propose a hypothetical signaling network that regulates Pseudourostyla cristata encystment. Overall, these results provide deeper insights into the molecular mechanisms of ciliates encystment and adaptation to adverse environments.
Highlights
The encystment of many ciliates is an advanced survival strategy against adversity and the most important reason for ciliates existence worldwide
The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of trophonts and dormant cysts of P. cristata were obtained by Hitachi S-4800 (Fig. 1)
We found that 188 unigenes involved in the biological process of the top 30 Gene Ontology (GO) categories were significantly higher in the cyst cells, whereas 102 unigenes expression were found to be upregulated in the translation process
Summary
The encystment of many ciliates is an advanced survival strategy against adversity and the most important reason for ciliates existence worldwide. FOXO and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis signaling pathway jointly regulated the encystment Based on these findings, we propose a hypothetical signaling network that regulates Pseudourostyla cristata encystment. We propose a hypothetical signaling network that regulates Pseudourostyla cristata encystment Overall, these results provide deeper insights into the molecular mechanisms of ciliates encystment and adaptation to adverse environments. To gain better insight into the molecular mechanism related to signaling pathways of the ciliates, cyst formation needs to be investigated in details. The reports of systematically studying the genes and signaling pathways involved in the formation of ciliate cysts at the molecular level are rare[8]. We have investigated the molecular mechanism underlying the cyst formation in ciliates using comparative transcriptomic analysis, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and bioinformatic techniques. Our study generates novel insights into the molecular mechanisms of the cyst formation in free-living ciliates
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