Golden cuttlefish Sepia esculenta Hoyle is an economically important cephalopod species. However, artificial hatching is currently challenged by low survival rate of larvae due to abnormal embryonic development. Dissecting the genetic foundation and regulatory mechanisms in embryonic development requires genomic background knowledge. Therefore, we carried out a transcriptome sequencing on Sepia embryos and larvae via mRNA-Seq. 32,597,241 raw reads were filtered and assembled into 98,615 unigenes (N50 length at 911 bp) which were annotated in NR database, GO and KEGG databases respectively. Digital gene expression analysis was carried out on cleavage stage embryos, healthy larvae and malformed larvae. Unigenes functioning in cell proliferation exhibited higher transcriptional levels at cleavage stage while those related to animal disease and organ development showed increased transcription in malformed larvae. Homologs of key genes in regulatory pathways related to early development of animals were identified in Sepia. Most of them exhibit higher transcriptional levels in cleavage stage than larvae, suggesting their potential roles in embryonic development of Sepia. The de novo assembly of Sepia transcriptome is fundamental genetic background for further exploration in Sepia research. Our demonstration on the transcriptional variations of genes in three developmental stages will provide new perspectives in understanding the molecular mechanisms in early embryonic development of cuttlefish.
Keywords: Sepia esculenta Hoyle; cuttlefish; digital gene expression; early embryonic development; transcriptome sequencing.