Comparative proteomic analysis of the three developmental stages and adults of Pacific abalone

초록

Abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) undergoes developmental transitions involving complex morphological and physiological changes from larvae to adults. To understand the molecular basis of these processes, we employed tandem mass tag-based quantitative proteomics across five developmental stages (trochophore and veliger larvae, juvenile, adult males and females). A total of 4956 proteins were identified across all stages. The earliest transition from trochophore to veliger larvae showed 66 differentially expressed proteins, predominantly upregulated structural and motility proteins such as myosin and tektin, reflecting muscle and ciliary development. The notable finding was the juvenile stage, which exhibited the substantial proteomic changes with more than 1000 proteins upregulated. These juveniles showed extensive metabolic pathway activation with ATP-citrate synthase-like isoform X1 markedly upregulated, while adults demonstrated metabolic downregulation and sex-specific reproductive protein upregulation including sperm-associated antigen 6 in males and vitellogenin-3-like in females. These findings indicate that the most significant proteome shift occurs at the juvenile stage, marked by a transition from structure- and motility-related proteins predominant in the larval stage to metabolism-related proteins. This shift reflects the culmination of metamorphosis and the onset of subsequent body growth. Subsequently, adults showed a clear proteome transition toward reproduction-related protein expression. These results demonstrate that the juvenile stage serves as a critical transition point between larval and adult stages, thus offering molecular insights for stage-specific aquaculture optimization such as environmental and nutritional strategies.

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