FUNCTIONAL BERIFICATION OF GENES RELATED TO HELMET DEVELOPMENT IN <italic>DAPHNIA GALEATA</italic>: BASED ON RNA INTERGERENCE AND MOTPHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION ANALYSIS

In order to explore the molecular mechanism of helmet development in Daphnia galeata, this study investigated the expression of two genes related to helmet development (DgTrepsin and DgFerritin) and changes of helmet morphology in D. galeata under RNA interference. The results showed that at a 2% concentration of E. coli, compared with the EGFP group, the DgTrypsin-interference group exhibited significant reductions in helmet length, relative helmet length, and the ratio of helmet length to head width, accompanied by a 27.45% decrease in DgDrypsin expression. However, no significant morphological or gene expression changes were observed in the DgFerritin-interference group at this concentration. When the concentration concentration of E. coli was increased to 5%, both the DgTrypsin and DgFerritin groups showed significant decreases in all three helmet morphology metrics, along with respective gene expression reductions of 55.96% and 40.39%, respectively. These results indicate that higher levels of RNA interference have a stronger inhibitory effect on the morphological changes and expression levels of the target genes. The findings demonstrate that DgTrypsin and DgFerritin genes are involved in the development of D. galeata helmet providing a valuable reference for further exploration of molecular mechanisms underlying the morphogenesis in Daphnia.为探索盔形溞（Daphnia galeata）头盔发育的分子机制，本研究针对RNA干扰（RNA interference）处理下的盔形溞，检测了两个与头盔发育相关的基因（DgTrepsin与DgFerritin）的表达水平，以及其头盔的形态变化。结果显示：在2%浓度的大肠杆菌（E. coli）条件下，与增强型绿色荧光蛋白（EGFP）对照组相比，DgTrypsin干扰组的头盔长度、相对头盔长度以及头盔长度与头宽的比值均显著降低，同时DgDrypsin的表达量下降27.45%。但该浓度下，DgFerritin干扰组未出现显著的形态或基因表达变化。当大肠杆菌浓度提升至5%时，DgTrypsin与DgFerritin两组的三项头盔形态指标均出现显著下降，对应基因的表达量分别下降55.96%与40.39%。上述结果表明，更高强度的RNA干扰对靶基因的表达水平与形态变化具有更强的抑制作用。本研究证实，DgTrypsin与DgFerritin基因均参与盔形溞头盔的发育过程，为进一步探索溞类形态发生的分子机制提供了重要参考。