Stable expression of Y-box protein 1 gene in early development of the abalone Haliotis diversicolor

Abalone animals are import models for the study of the early development of marine invertebrates. However, systematical evaluations of internal control genes (ICG) have seldomly been performed. In this study, ten candidate genes were cloned and surveyed for their stability throughout the early developmental period of H. diversicolor using qPCR. In a period from fertilized egg to postlarva, three genes, Y-box protein 1 (YB1), ornithine decarboxylase antizyme 1 (OAZ1) and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 5A (EIF5A), were found to be the most stable and could be used as ICGs. It is suggested that using two genes jointly, such as YB1 and OAZ1, could be sufficiently reliable to normalize the temporal dynamics of other genes. Normalized by YB1/OAZ1, some rough features of early development of a small abalone were characterized. This is the first report of the temporal dynamics of metabolic activities and overall mRNA abundance of abalone animals in early stages. It is also the first time the multi-functional gene YB1 has been described as an internal control for early developmental biology studies. Phylogeny and function of YB1 are further discussed.