Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetic Regulation and Integrated Biology, School of Life Sciences, Huazhong Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol. 2011 Dec;160(4):187-93. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpb.2011.08.005. Epub 2011 Aug 24.
Gobiocypris rarus is an emerging fish model for aquatic toxicology in China as it is sensitive to environmental hormone disruptors. Exogenous sex steroids can affect sex differentiation and the expression of sex-related genes. Foxl2, a member of forkhead-box transcription factor family, is the key gene for ovary development and its mutation causes the blepharophimosis ptosis epicanthus inversus syndrome in human. We find that two foxl2 genes exist in fish genome, one is foxl2, and the other is foxl2b. Here, we reported the isolation and expression of foxl2 in G. rarus. G. rarus foxl2 cDNA is 1700bp in length with a 921bp of open reading frame encoding 306 amino acids containing the typical FH-domain. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR revealed its predominant expression in the eye, brain, gill and gonads. Moreover, the expression level in the ovary was significantly higher than that in the testis. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that foxl2 was up regulated after treatment with estradiol and was down regulated with 2-methyl-testosterone. These results suggested that Foxl2 plays an important role in female development of G. rarus, foxl2 mRNA expression is regulated by downstream sex hormones, and foxl2 can be used as a molecular indicator monitoring the environmental endocrine disruptors.
雅罗鱼是中国水生态毒理学中一种新兴的鱼类模式生物，因为它对环境激素干扰物敏感。外源性性激素可以影响性别分化和与性别相关基因的表达。Foxl2 是叉头框转录因子家族的一员，是卵巢发育的关键基因，其突变导致人类出现眼睑下垂-上睑下垂-内眦赘皮-倒向综合征。我们发现鱼类基因组中有两个 foxl2 基因，一个是 foxl2，另一个是 foxl2b。在这里，我们报道了 Gobiocypris rarus 中 foxl2 的分离和表达。G. rarus foxl2 cDNA 长 1700bp，开放阅读框长 921bp，编码 306 个氨基酸，含有典型的 FH 结构域。半定量 RT-PCR 显示其在眼睛、大脑、鳃和性腺中表达丰度较高。此外，在卵巢中的表达水平显著高于睾丸。定量 RT-PCR 显示，foxl2 在雌二醇处理后上调，在 2-甲基睾酮处理后下调。这些结果表明，Foxl2 在 G. rarus 的雌性发育中发挥重要作用，foxl2 mRNA 表达受下游性激素调节，foxl2 可作为监测环境内分泌干扰物的分子指标。
