Editorial: Sex determination and developmental mechanism of crustaceans and shellfish, volume II
Ardavan Farhadi
Abstract
Sex determination and developmental mechanism of crustaceans and shellfish, volume II Crustaceans are considered as valuable food sources, due to their high market and nutrition value.The molecular mechanism of sexual development in crustaceans is still unclear and further studies are needed to get a clear understanding and improve their reproductive efficiency.The androgenic gland (AG) plays an important role in sexual development by secretion of insulin-like androgenic gland hormone (IAG) (Farhadi et al., 2021a).The IAG is considered as one of the most important hormones in the sexual development of male crustaceans.Recent studies revealed that sexual development in crustaceans is not that simple and several other hormones and sexual genes are involved in this process.For example, recent studies have found several sexual genes such as Wnt4, CFSH, Dmrt gene family, Sox gene family, Fem-1, etc. play key roles in the regulation of IAG and sexual development in direct or indirect ways (Farhadi et al., 2021b).Up to now, the complete and functional sex reversal only has been reported in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii.Therefore, more studies are needed to discover more sexual factors (i.e., sex-related genes and molecular pathways) in different crustaceans species.Identification and functional analysis of the sex-related genes will help us to find novel techniques for sexual manipulation.Based on the past successful Research Topic "Sex Determination and Developmental Mechanism of Crustaceans and Shellfish", we are pleased to announce the Volume II.This Research Topic "Sex Determination and Developmental Mechanism of Crustaceans and Shellfish -Volume II" gathers four research articles dedicated to the molecular mechanism of sexual development in crustaceans.The articles identified and revealed the function of several key sex-related genes (i.e., polo-like kinase 1, insulin-like peptide, steroidogenesis genes, LGR1, GPA2, GPB5) in different crustacean species.In oriental river prawn (Machrobrachium nipponense), Jin et al. identified and revealed the function of a polo-like kinase 1 gene (Mn-Plk1) in the sexual development of male M. nipponense.The full-length cDNA of Mn-Plk1 was 2360 bp with an open reading frame (ORF) encoding 611 amino acids.Mn-Plk1 had the highest expression level in the male and Frontiers in Endocrinology frontiersin.org01