ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENTIAL GENE EXPRESSION BY SRAP-cDNA IN MANTLE TISSUE OF HYRIOPSIS CUMINGII WITH DIFFERENT EXTERNAL SHELL COLOR

The segregation of shell coloration and presence of radial rays in the juvenile freshwater mussel, Hyriopsis cumingii, follows Mendelian inheritance modes of a single gene locus with one pair of dominant/recessive alleles. To elucidate the mechanisms of external shell color formation, gene expression of two typical shell colors was analyzed by bulked segregant analysis (BSA) and SRAP-cDNA. Five differential gene segments were obtained by SRAP-cDNA using 30 primers' combinations, and 14 fragments with the size ranging from 195 bp to 339 bp were obtained after rec-laim and clone. Using BlastX, these fragments could encode two similar proteins, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) and MYM-1 Zn Finger protein, and no protein related to pigment could be encoded. Further directions should focus on the relationship between shell color phenotype and pyrimidine metabolism by similar Zn finger proteins in the triangle pearl mussels.