Identifying the genes involved in the egg-carrying ovigerous hair development of the female blue crab Callinectes sapidus: transcriptomic and genomic expression analyses.

BACKGROUND: Crustacean female sex hormone (CFSH) controls gradually developing adult female-specific morphological features essential for mating and brood care. Specifically, ovigerous hairs are developed during the prepuberty molt cycle of the blue crab Callinectes sapidus that are essential for carrying the eggs until they finish development. Reduced CFSH transcripts by CFSH-dsRNA injections result in fewer and shorter ovigerous hairs than the control. This study aimed to identify the specific genes responsible for ovigerous hair formation using transcriptomic, genomic and expression analyses of the ovigerous setae at three stages: prepuberty at early (OE) and late premolt (OL), and adult (AO) stages. RESULTS: The de novo Trinity assembly on filtered sequence reads produced 96,684 Trinity genes and 124,128 transcripts with an N50 of 1,615 bp. About 27.3% of the assembled Trinity genes are annotated to the public protein sequence databases (i.e., NR, Swiss-Prot, COG, KEGG, and GO databases). The OE vs. OL, OL vs. AO, and OE vs. AO comparisons resulted in 6,547, 7,793, and 7,481 differentially expressed genes, respectively, at a log2-fold difference. Specifically, the genes involved in the Wnt signaling and cell cycle pathways are positively associated with ovigerous hair development. Moreover, the transcripts of ten cuticle protein genes containing chitin-binding domains are most significantly changed by transcriptomic analysis and RT-qPCR assays, which shows a molt-stage specific, down-up-down mode across the OE-OL-AO stages. Furthermore, the expression of the cuticle genes with the chitin-binding domain, Rebers and Riddiford domain (RR)-1 appears at early premolt, followed by RR-2 at late premolt stage. Mapping these 10 cuticle protein sequences to the C. sapidus genome reveals that two scaffolds with a 549.5Kb region and 35 with a 1.19 Mb region harbor 21 RR1 and 20 RR2 cuticle protein genes, respectively. With these findings, a putative mode of CFSH action in decapod crustaceans is proposed. CONCLUSIONS: The present study describes a first step in understanding the mechanism underlying ovigerous hair formation in C. sapidus at the molecular level. Overall, demonstrating the first transcriptome analysis of crustacean ovigerous setae, our results may facilitate future studies into the decapod female reproduction belonging to the suborder Pleocyemata.

1-Year Clinical Outcomes in Women After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: Results From the First WIN-TAVI Registry.

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to examine the safety and performance of contemporary transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in an exclusive all-women TAVR population, and to further investigate the potential impact of female sex-specific characteristics on composite 1-year clinical outcomes. BACKGROUND: Women comprise ≥50% patients undergoing TAVR. Several data have shown the noninferiority of TAVR compared with surgical aortic valve replacement for symptomatic significant aortic stenosis, but no study so far has been specifically powered to detect differences by sex. METHODS: The WIN-TAVI (Women's INternational Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation) registry is a multinational, prospective, observational registry of women undergoing TAVR for significant aortic stenosis, across 18 sites in Europe and 1 site in the United States, between January 2013 and December 2015. The primary Valve Academic Research Consortium (VARC)-2 efficacy endpoint was a composite of mortality, stroke, myocardial infarction, hospitalization for valve-related symptoms or heart failure or valve-related dysfunction beyond 30 days. Secondary endpoints included composite 1-year death or stroke. Predictors of 1-year outcomes were determined using Cox regression methods. RESULTS: A total of 1,019 intermediate to high-risk women, with mean age 82.5 ± 6.3 years, mean European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE) I 17.8 ± 11.7% and mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons score 8.3 ± 7.4% were enrolled. TAVR was performed via transfemoral access in 90.6% and new-generation devices were used in 42.1%. The primary VARC-2 efficacy composite endpoint occurred in 111 (10.9%) patients beyond 30 days and in 167 (16.5%) patients at 1 year. The incidence of 1-year death or stroke was 13.9% (n = 141). Death occurred in 127 (12.5%) patients and stroke in 22 (2.2%) patients. Prior coronary revascularization (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.72; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17 to 2.52; p = 0.006) and EuroSCORE I (HR: 1.02; 95% CI: 1.00 to 1.04; p = 0.027) were independent predictors of the VARC-2 efficacy endpoint. Similarly, EuroSCORE I (HR: 1.02; 95% CI: 1.00 to 1.04; p = 0.013), baseline atrial fibrillation (HR: 1.58; 95% CI: 1.07 to 2.33; p = 0.022), and prior percutaneous coronary intervention (HR: 1.50; 95% CI: 1.03 to 2.19; p = 0.035) were independent predictors of 1-year death or stroke. After adjustment, no significant association was observed between history of pregnancy or any sex-specific factors and 1-year TAVR outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Intermediate to high-risk women enrolled in this first ever all-women contemporary TAVR registry experienced a 1-year VARC-2 composite efficacy endpoint of 16.5%, with a low incidence of 1-year mortality and stroke. Prior revascularization and EuroSCORE I were independent predictors of the VARC-2 efficacy endpoint, whereas EuroSCORE I, baseline atrial fibrillation, and prior percutaneous coronary intervention were independent predictors of the 1-year death or stroke.