Departamento de Zooloxía, Xenética e Antropoloxía Física, Facultade de Veterinaria, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 27002, Lugo, Spain.
The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, United Kingdom.
Sci Rep. 2017 Sep 21;7(1):12105. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-12459-4.
Growth is among the most important traits for animal breeding. Understanding the mechanisms underlying growth differences between individuals can contribute to improving growth rates through more efficient breeding schemes. Here, we report a transcriptomic study in muscle and brain of fast- and slow-growing turbot (Scophthalmus maximus), a relevant flatfish in European and Asian aquaculture. Gene expression and allelic association between the two groups were explored. Up-regulation of the anaerobic glycolytic pathway in the muscle of fast-growing fish was observed, indicating a higher metabolic rate of white muscle. Brain expression differences were smaller and not associated with major growth-related genes, but with regulation of feeding-related sensory pathways. Further, SNP variants showing frequency differences between fast- and slow-growing fish pointed to genomic regions likely involved in growth regulation, and three of them were individually validated through SNP typing. Although different mechanisms appear to explain growth differences among families, general mechanisms seem also to be involved, and thus, results provide a set of useful candidate genes and markers to be evaluated for more efficient growth breeding programs and to perform comparative genomic studies of growth in fish and vertebrates.
生长是动物育种中最重要的特征之一。了解个体间生长差异的机制有助于通过更有效的育种方案提高生长速度。在这里，我们报告了一项关于快速生长和慢速生长大菱鲆（Scophthalmus maximus）肌肉和大脑的转录组研究，大菱鲆是欧洲和亚洲水产养殖中的一种重要的比目鱼。我们探讨了两组之间的基因表达和等位基因关联。在快速生长鱼类的肌肉中观察到厌氧糖酵解途径的上调，表明白肌的代谢率更高。大脑表达的差异较小，与主要的生长相关基因无关，但与摄食相关的感觉途径的调节有关。此外，在快速生长和慢速生长鱼类之间表现出频率差异的 SNP 变体表明可能参与生长调节的基因组区域，其中三个通过 SNP 分型进行了单独验证。尽管不同的机制似乎解释了不同家系之间的生长差异，但似乎也涉及一般机制，因此，这些结果提供了一组有用的候选基因和标记，可用于更有效的生长育种计划，并进行鱼类和脊椎动物生长的比较基因组研究。
