P. Liang et Th. Macrae, The synthesis of a small heat shock/alpha-crystallin protein in Artemia and its relationship to stress tolerance during development, DEVELOP BIO, 207(2), 1999, pp. 445-456
Fertilized oocytes of the brine shrimp Artemia franciscana undergo either o
voviviparous or oviparous development, yielding Gee swimming larvae (naupli
i) or encysted gastrulae (cysts), respectively. Encystment is followed by d
iapause, wherein metabolism is greatly reduced; the resulting cysts are ver
y resistant to extreme stress, including desiccation and long-term anoxia.
The synthesis of p26, a small heat shock/alpha-crystallin protein produced
only in oviparously developing Artemia, is shown in this paper to be transc
riptionally regulated. A p26 mRNA of about 0.7 kb was detected on Northern
blots in the second day after oocyte fertilization. It peaked as embryos en
cysted and declined rapidly when activated cysts resumed development. The a
ppearance of p26 protein, as indicated by immunoprobing of Western blots, f
ollowed mRNA by 1 day; it also increased as encystment occurred hut remaine
d constant during postgastrula development of cysts. However, p26 underwent
a marked reduction during emergence of nauplii and could not be detected i
n cell-free extracts of second-instar larvae, p26 entered nuclei of encysti
ng embryos soon after synthesis and was localized therein as late as instar
II, when it was restricted to a small set of salt gland nuclei. First-inst
ar larvae derived from cysts were more thermotolerant than larvae that had
developed ovoviviparously, but synthesis of p26 was not induced by heat und
er the experimental conditions employed. Additionally, transformed bacteria
synthesizing p26 were more thermotolerant than bacteria that lacked the pr
otein. The results support the proposal that p26, a developmentally regulat
ed protein synthesized during embryo encystment, has chaperone activity in
vivo and protects the proteins of encysted Artemia from stress-induced dena
turation. (C) 1999 Academic Press.