A high-throughput analysis of the protein coding genes that direct shell formation in the mollusc Lymnaea stagnalis.

关于动物制造坚硬身体部位的遗传和分子机制，也被称为生物矿物质，我们知之甚少。迄今为止，已有数十种蛋白质在功能上被证明在骨、壳和骨骼形成中发挥作用。这与被认为参与这些过程的数百种基因产物形成了对比。通过使用高通量方法结合下一代序列数据集，我们将分离和表征淡水池塘蜗牛lynaea滞海蜗牛壳形成过程中涉及的大部分基因产物。这个高通量数据集将是任何软体动物的第一个此类数据集，软体动物是一组动物，其进化的成功主要是由于各种各样的外壳形态。这些结果将为支持多细胞动物生命早期进化的过程提供深入的见解。根据化石记录，在5.4亿年前被称为“寒武纪大爆发”的时期，软体多细胞动物迅速被具有硬内骨骼和外骨骼的动物所取代。因此，生物矿化能力的进化被认为是支持复杂动物生命多样化的一个因素。因此，软体动物外壳形成基因的全面目录将大大有助于我们理解生物矿化能力是如何进化的。

Little is known about the genetic and molecular mechanisms by which animals make hard body parts, also known as biominerals. To date, tens of proteins have been functionally demonstrated to play roles in bone, shell and skeleton formation. This is in contrast to the hundreds of gene products that are thought to be involved in these processes. By using high throughput methods in combination with next generation sequence datasets already in hand, we will isolate and characterise the majority of the gene products involved in shell formation in the freshwater pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. This high throughput dataset will be the first of its kind for any mollusc, a group of animals whose evolutionary success is largely due to a wide variety of shell morphologies. These results will provide deep insight into the processes that supported the early evolution of multicellular animal life. According to the fossil record, soft-bodied multicellular animals were rapidly replaced by animals with hard endo- and exo-skeletons during a period over 540 million years ago known as the 'Cambrian explosion'. The evolution of an ability to biomineralise is therefore thought to have been one factor that supported the diversification of complex animal life. A comprehensive catalog of the genes responsible for molluscan shell formation will therefore significantly contribute to our understanding of how the ability to biomineralise evolved.