“…Furthermore, although lower than observed for the ovary, qPCR analysis reveals Vtg1 expression is clearly evident in the hepatopancreas, while the expression signal corresponding to Vtg2 cannot clearly be distinguished from the low-level amplification of non-target sequences. These findings are consistent with studies that show the ovary and hepatopancreas are major sites of Vtg synthesis in crustaceans (eg Fainzilber et al, 1992;Chen et al, 1999;Tsutsui et al, 2000;Tseng et al, 2001;Abdu et al, 2002;Tseng et al, 2002;Tsang et al, 2003;Serrano-Pinto et al, 2004;Tsutsui et al, 2004;Mak et al, 2005;Kang et al, 2008;Raviv et al, 2006;Phiriyangkul and Utarabhand, 2006;Tiu et al, 2006;Xie et al, 2009;Ara and Damrongphol, 2012) and suggest that the ovary is the primary site of Vtg synthesis in amphipods, as has been established for other crustaceans (Fainzilber et al, 1992;Raviv et al, 2006). In many crustacean species, some Vtg genes are expressed predominantly or even exclusively in the hepatopancreas (eg Chen et al, 1999;Abdu et al, 2002;Tsang et al, 2003;Tsutsui et al, 2004;Mak et al, 2005;Ara and Damrongphol, 2012), however, the qPCR carried out for this study suggests that neither of the two E. marinus Vtg sequences present a bias towards hepatopancreatic expression.…”