Molecular biological analysis of the environmental response systems for reproduction and metabolism of the amniotes

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Amniotes are highly adapted to survive in a terrestrial environment. Among them, reptiles are ectothermic and seem to be unfit for living in land environment. But squamate reptiles is one of most adaptively radiating group in the vertebrates. To reveal the background of their successful adaption, we started this study mainly focused on the reproduction and energy metabolism. In our previous study ZFAND3 was found as a potential gene marker to monitor the physiological status of the testes and continuously characterized its unique 3'UTR structure. On the other hand, pancreatic hormones were also characterized because of its crucial role in regulating the energy metabolism. As a result, we found three novel splice variants of proglucagon mRNA, having different coding potential. We also found highly mutated insulin sequence from Japanese gecko. Finding these distinctive molecular features may contribute to understand the regulatory system underlying the prosperity of squmate reptiles.