Figure 3.

Role of RA in Seahorse Brood Pouch Formation and Pregnancy

Detailed gene expression data are shown in Tables S11 and S12.

(A) Role of RA synthesis and signaling during pregnancy of two seahorse species, H. erectus and H. abdominalis. RA synthesis and signaling pathway is simplified from Duester.¹¹ Upward and downward arrows indicate upregulation and downregulation of genes and metabolites during pouch pregnancy, respectively. Each arrow represents one gene.

(B) Summarized functions of RA target genes in seahorse brood pouch formation and pregnancy. RA might function upstream of testosterone and progesterone by regulating the expression of fshr and cyp7a1. Oval circles indicate RA target genes that were significantly differentially expressed during pouch formation or pregnancy and three rectangles indicate diverse functions that may be regulated by RA.