A team of researchers from the Austral University of Chile and the INCAR Center, led by Dr. Juan Guillermo Cárcamo, conducted a mass protein identification analysis on the sea louse, Caligus rogercresseyi. The results definitively established the existence of biased protein expression between male and female specimens of this ectoparasite. The study titled “Proteomic profiles of male and female Caligus rogercresseyi: first approach to assess differential protein expression,” authored by Tamara Vera, Moisés Sandoval, Juan P. Cumillaf, Freddy Delgado-Lagos, Luis Arias-Darraz, and Juan Guillermo Cárcamo, presented the initial progress of the proteomic analysis of Caligus rogercresseyi.
In recent years, the understanding of the cellular and molecular biology of the salmon parasite, Caligus rogercresseyi, has greatly increased through the use of “omics” tools, particularly genomics and transcriptomics. However, protein-level information on this parasite was practically non-existent. This project that was part of Dr. Tamara Vera’s Fondecyt Postdoctoral project, evaluated the differential protein expression between male and female specimens that were not exposed to antiparasitic treatments. The study found 1,666 proteins, of which 1,307 were expressed in both males and females. Within this group, 688 proteins showed differential expression. On the other hand, among the proteins exclusively expressed in each sex, researchers detected 148 proteins exclusively in males and 211 proteins exclusive to females.
For more information, read the paper titled “Proteomic profiles of male and female Caligus rogercresseyi: initial investigation into differential protein expression” published in Aquaculture.
