Author:
Chen Yeyu,Liu Ya,Gong Quan,Lai Jiansheng,Song Mingjiang,Du Jun,Deng Xiaochuan
Abstract
Background
Acipenser dabryanus, an endemic Chinese species, has been listed as a first-class protected animal in China. Sturgeons are among the oldest and most primitive group of existing fish in the world and occupy a special place in the evolutionary history of fish. Thus, a study of the reproduction and sex differentiation of sturgeon will be of great value for fish as well as the whole vertebrate group.
Methods
In this study, we conducted comparative analysis of the testes and ovaries transcriptomes of A. dabryanus to screen for sex-differentiation and sexual development-related genes.
Results
The transcriptome sequencing of six cDNA libraries generated 265 million clean reads, encompassing 79 Gb of sequences. The N50 and mean length of the identified 91,375 unigenes were 1,718 and 989 bp, respectively. A total of 6,306, 9,961, 13,170, 15,484, and 23,588 unigenes were annotated in the clusters of orthologous groups, gene ontology categories, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathway, euKaryotic orthologous groups, and NCBI non-redundant protein databases, respectively. A total of 5,396 differentially expressed genes were found between the two sexes, with 1,938 predicted to be up-regulated in ovaries and 3,458 in testes. A total of 73 candidate genes known to be involved in sex differentiation and sexual development were searched in the transcriptome of A. dabryanus of which 52 showed significant similarity. We highlighted six genes that are differentially expressed between the two sexes and may play important roles in sex differentiation and gonad maintenance. In addition, 24,271 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 550,519 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected.
Discussion
This work represents the first transcriptome study comparing the ovary and testis in A. dabryanus. The putative differentially expressed genes between the gonads provide an important source of information for further study of the sex-differentiation related genes and the sex-differentiation mechanism in sturgeons. The SSRs or SNPs identified in this study will be helpful in the discovery of sex-related markers in A. dabryanus.
Funder
Project of Screening of Sex-related Genes and Makers for Acipenser dabryanus Based on Transcriptome Sequencing
Project of Screening of Sex-linked Markers and Sex Determination Gene for Acipenser dabryanus Based on Transcriptome Sequencing Technology
Project of Provincial 13th Five Years’ Animal Breeding of Sichuan Province
Development of Microsatellite Derived from Acipenser dabryanus and Its Application in Paternity Test
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,General Neuroscience
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