The role of phosphatidylinositol signaling pathway in regulating serotonin-induced oocyte maturation in Mercenaria mercenaria

Serotonin (5-HT) has been found to stimulate meiotic maturation of oocytes in many molluscs. During maturation, several signaling pathways are involved, especially the phosphatidylinositol and cAMP pathways. In order to examine the possible role of the phosphatidylinositol signaling pathway in regulating oocyte maturation in Mercenaria mercenaria, the effects of the activator/inhibitor of phospholipase (PLC) and protein kinase C (PKC) on serotonin-induced maturation were studied. Results show that high-concentrations of neomycin (inhibitor of PLC) blocked oocyte maturation, while 9, 10-dimethyl-1, 2-benzanthracene (DMBA, activator of PLC) promoted oocyte maturation in the presence of serotonin. It was also found that in the presence of serotonin, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA, activator of PKC) inhibited oocyte maturation, while sphingosine (inhibitor of PKC) stimulated oocyte maturation. These results indicate that serotonin-induced oocyte maturation requires the activation of the phosphatidylinositol pathway. Decrease of PLC inhibited serotonin-induced oocyte maturation, whereas a decrease of PKC stimulated the maturation. Thus, our study indicates that serotonin promotes maturation of M. mercenaria oocytes through PLC stimulated increase in calcium ion concentration via inositol-1, 4, 5-trisphosphate (IP₃) but not PKC.