Parhyale hawaiensis

Parhyale hawaiensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Amphipoda
Family: Hyalidae
Genus: Parhyale
Species: P. hawaiensis
Binomial name
Parhyale hawaiensis
Dana, 1853

Parhyale hawaiensis is an amphipod crustacean species that is used in developmental and genetic analyses.

Habitat

P. hawaiensis is a detritovore that has a circumtropical, worldwide, intertidal, and shallow-water marine distribution,[1][2] and it may occur as a species complex.[3] It has been reported to occur in large populations (more than 3000 per square metre) on decaying mangrove leaf material in environments subjected to rapid changes in salinity.[4] The ability to tolerate rapid temperature and osmotic changes allows this species to thrive under typical laboratory conditions.

Life cycle

Females produce embryos every 2 weeks once they reach sexual maturity. Embryogenesis is relatively short, lasting about 10 days at 26 °C (79 °F). Females normally brood the embryos in a ventral brood pouch. Close examination of the embryonic development of P. hawaiensis has produced the most detailed staging system for any crustacean.[5] Complete embryogenesis has been divided into 30 discrete stages, which are readily identifiable in living animals or by means of common molecular markers in fixed specimens. Hatchlings possess a complete complement of segments and appendages which are morphologically similar to those of adult animals.

Genetic research

P. hawaiensis is used in genetic research because eggs and embryos are easily manipulated. Embryos can be rapidly and easily removed from the brood pouch and maintained in seawater. Eggs can be collected and hatched individually, and the mature animals can subsequently be used in pairwise sister-brother or mother-son matings to generate inbred lines.

Fertilized eggs are sufficiently large to perform microinjections[6] and blastomere isolations[7] with relative ease. Developing P. hawaiensis embryos are clear, allowing for both detailed microscopic analyses in situ and the use of fluorescently tagged tracer molecules in live embryos. Early cleavage is holoblastic (total), allowing the fates of individual early cells to be explored through experimental manipulation.[5][6][7]

The transcriptome of P. hawaiensis was generated using the pyrosequencing technique.[8] This resource is freely available for download. The transcriptome data can be used for the creation of in situ probes and other experimental tools.

References

  1. ↑ Clarence Raymond Shoemaker (1956). "Observations on the amphipod genus Parhyale". Proceedings of the United States National Museum 106 (3372): 345–358. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.106-3372.345.
  2. ↑ J. L. Barnard (1965). "Marine Amphipoda of atolls in Micronesia". Proceedings of the United States National Museum 117: 459–551. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.117-3516.459.
  3. ↑ Alan A. Myers (1985). "Shallow-water, coral reef and mangrove Amphipoda (Gammaridea) of Fiji" (PDF). Records of the Australian Museum. Suppl 5: 1–143.
  4. ↑ S. Poovachiranon, K. Boto & N. Duke (1986). "Food preference studies and ingestion rate measurements of the mangrove amphipod Parhyale hawaiensis (Dana)". Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 98 (1–2): 129–140. doi:10.1016/0022-0981(86)90078-X.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 William E. Browne, Alivia L. Price, Matthias Gerberding & Nipam H. Patel (2005). "Stages of embryonic development in the amphipod crustacean, Parhyale hawaiensis" (PDF). Genesis 42 (3): 124–149. doi:10.1002/gene.20145. PMID 15986449.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Matthias Gerberding, William E. Browne & Nipam H. Patel (2002). "Cell lineage analysis of the amphipod crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis". Development 129 (24): 5789–5901. doi:10.1242/dev.00155. PMID 12421717.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Cassandra G. Extavour (2005). "The fate of isolated blastomeres with respect to germ cell formation in the amphipod crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis" (PDF). Developmental Biology 277 (2): 387–402. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2004.09.030.
  8. ↑ Victor Zeng, Karina Villanueva, Ben Ewen-Campen, Frederike Alwes, William Browne & Cassandra Extavour (2011). "De novo assembly and characterization of a maternal and developmental transcriptome for the emerging model crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis" (PDF). BMC Genomics 12: 581. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-12-581. PMC 3282834. PMID 22118449.

Further reading