Species specificity of barnacle settlement-inducing proteins

We previously isolated a larval settlement-inducing protein complex (SIPC) from adult extracts of the barnacle, Balanus amphitrite using a nitrocellulose membrane settlement assay. In the present study, we found that the extracts of other adult barnacles, Megabalanus rosa and Balanus eburneus, also induced the settlement of B. amphitrite cyprids although the inductive activity was slightly lower than that of conspecific extracts. Furthermore, we examined reactivity to anti-SIPC antibody in adult extracts from six species of Japanese barnacles other than B. amphitrite, brine shrimp and eight marine sessile organisms besides barnacles. The results showed that all barnacles examined contained SIPC-like proteins with slightly different molecular weight, while the other animals did not react to the antibody by immunoblot analysis. These findings suggest that species specificity in settlement-inducing proteins of barnacles is not so strict, but these proteins are characteristic to barnacle species.