Abstract

Chemical cues are important in the exogenous and endogenous control of metamorphosis in many marine larvae. In most cases, the exact nature of the cue is unknown, and the manner in which larvae receive and transduce cues is not well understood. In order to understand theses process in the queen conch, Strombus gigas, the role of second messenger pathways in larval metamorphosis were examined. Past work with an artificial inducer of conch metamorphosis, H202 pointed to the importance of the phosphatidyl inositol signal transduction pathway. The current work focused on this pathway, examining the involvement of tyrosine kinases (TKs), protein kinase C (pKC), and arachidonic acid (AA). Activators of PKC induce queen conch metamorphosis, as does AA. Inhibitors of TKs, PKC, and AA block metamorphosis. These results were used to develop a model for signalling processes involved in the induction of conch metamorphosis and allowed for comparisons with other recognition based systems.

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