Analysis of the transcriptional pathways associated with the induction of quiescent embryonic arrest in the calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa.

The copepod species Acartia tonsa (Dana)(Crustacea) have the unique ability to induce quiescent embryonic dormancy if adverse environmental conditions occur; a characteristic shared by 41 other species belonging to the superfamily Centropagoida in the Calanoida order. However, the transcriptional changes characterizing this process are not known. Here, we compare the transcriptome of embryos in arrested quiescence with the normal development to identify pathways and differentially regulated transcripts involved in quiescent embryogenesis.

Embryogenesis of a calanoid copepod analyzed by transcriptomics.

The calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa (Dana) has attracted interest because of its use as a copepod model organism as well as its potential economic role as live fish larval feed. While the adult genome and transcriptome of A. tonsa has been investigated, no studies have been performed investigating the genome-wide transcriptional changes during the normal subitaneous embryogenesis.