Molecular Identification and Characterization of Sugar and Peptide Carriers in the Giant Tiger Prawn, Penaeus monodon

Abstract

Individuals of the giant tiger prawn Penaeus monodon were collected at a local shrimp farm in Goa. The expression and the tissue distribution of two transport proteins involved, respectively, in sugar and peptide absorption, have been investigated in the intestine, hepatopancreas and gills of P. monodon. Starting from P. monodon intestine mRNA we obtained the full sequence of shrimp SGLT-like transporter consisting of 2544 nucleotides. Starting from mRNA samples of shrimp intestine and hepatopancreas, we amplified a PepT-like transcript showing, in both tissues, an identical partial sequence of 430 nucleotides, corresponding to a protein region of 143 amino acids. Surprisingly our preliminary data suggest the expression of a PEPT-like protein also in P. monodon gills, opening several questions about the function of this peptide absorption mechanism in the respiratory epithelium.