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Author: Hoang Dinh Chieu, Luke Turner, Meaghan K. Smith, Tianfang Wang, Josephine Nocillado, Peter Palma, Saowaros Suwansa-ard, Abigail Elizur, Scott F. Cummins
Issued date: 12/07/2018
Issued by: Proceeding in the 8th intercongress symposium of the AOSCE (Asia and Oceania Society for Comparative Endocrinology), at Australia. The University of Sydney. 2018: 51

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Abstract

Wild sea cucumbers have been exhausted rapidly and need to be restocked by proactive actions to produce seed through artificial breeding. The neurohormone relaxin-like gonad- stimulating peptide (RGP) has been identified as the active gonadstimulating peptide in starfish, which could also be effective in other echinoderms. However, RGP‟s quaternary structure is complex and difficult to synthesise. In this study, a recombinant Holothuria scabra RGP was produced in the yeast Pichia pastoris, then prepared to four levels of purification: crude RGP supernatant (CS), crude concentrated RGP (CR), Sep-pak-purified RGP (SR), and His-tag with Amicon filter-purified RGP (HR). The most pure form, HR, induced 98.56 ± 1.19% germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) in H. scabra and 89.57 ± 1.19% GVBD in Holothuria leucospilota. Both CS and HR induced spawning in H. scabra females; CS induced spawning at 80 min after second injection (2nd injection at 60 min after first injection), while HR induced spawning at 90 min after first injection. All mature oocytes from this spawning bioassay were fertilised successfully, developed into juveniles and settled for growth at the Darwin Aquaculture Centre for conservation programs. Our results provide a key finding for the development of a break-through new artificial breeding approach in sea cucumber aquaculture.

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