Transcriptomic characterisation of neuropeptides and their putative cognate G protein-coupled receptors during late embryo and stage-1 juvenile development of the Aotearoa-New Zealand crayfish, Paranephrops zealandicus

Abstract

We de novo assembled a transcriptome for early life-stages of the Aotearoa-New Zealand crayfish, Paranephrops zealandicus, establishing the first genetic resource for this under-developed aquaculture species and for the Paranephrops genus. Mining of this transcriptome for neuropeptides and their putative cognate G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) yielded a comprehensive catalogue of neuropeptides, but few putative neuropeptide GPCRs. Of the neuropeptides commonly identified from decapod transcriptomes, only crustacean female sex hormone and insulin-like peptide were absent from our trinity de novo transcriptome assembly, and also RNA-sequence reads. We identified 63 putative neuropeptide precursors from 43 families, predicted to yield 122 active peptides. Transcripts encoding 26 putative neuropeptide GPCRs were identified but were often incomplete. Putative GPCRs for 15 of the neuropeptides identified here were absent from our transcriptome and RNAseq reads. These data highlight the diverse neuropeptide systems already present at the early development life stages sampled here for P. zealandicus.