LAUSR

Abstract The southern rock lobster, Jasus edwardsii, is a member of the Achelata native to New Zealand and southern Australia that in addition to being the subject of an extensive wild fishery, has been proposed as a target for aquaculture. One obstacle to the farming of this species is its long maturation period, and the development of large-scale commercial aquaculture will require management strategies that reduce the duration of its time in culture. Increasing food intake can result in increased growth rates, and may be one way to reduce the time to market for farmed lobsters. In crustaceans, food intake and growth are regulated by locally released and/or circulating paracrines/hormones, the largest class being peptides. In the study presented here, the native peptides of J. edwardsii, as well as their cognate receptors, were predicted using a publicly accessible transcriptome. Two hundred and seventy distinct peptides were identified (the largest peptidome currently extant for any decapod), 122 of which possess structures that place them into generally recognized arthropod peptide families, i.e., adipokinetic hormone-corazonin-like peptide, allatostatin A, allatostatin B, allatostatin C, bursicon, CCHamide, corazonin, crustacean cardioactive peptide, crustacean hyperglycemic hormone/molt-inhibiting hormone, diuretic hormone 31, diuretic hormone 44, eclosion hormone, elevenin, FMRFamide-like peptide, glycoprotein hormone, GSEFLamide, inotocin, insulin-like peptide, leucokinin, myosuppressin, neuroparsin, neuropeptide F, orcokinin, orcomyotropin, pigment dispersing hormone, proctolin, pyrokinin, red pigment concentrating hormone, RYamide, short neuropeptide F, SIFamide, sulfakinin, tachykinin-related peptide and trissin. Putative receptors for many of the identified peptide groups were also identified via transcriptome mining. This is the first report of a peptidome and peptide receptors for J. edwardsii, and as such, provides a powerful new resource for beginning to investigate the physiological/behavioral roles played by peptidergic signaling systems in this species, including the roles they play in controlling processes that are of importance for improving aquaculture management strategies.