The Fish Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
The Fish Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA; College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China.
Comp Biochem Physiol Part D Genomics Proteomics. 2019 Mar;29:166-172. doi: 10.1016/j.cbd.2018.11.008. Epub 2018 Nov 9.
Heat tolerance is increasingly becoming an important trait for aquaculture species with a changing climate. Transcriptional studies on responses to heat stress have been conducted in catfish, one of the most important economic aquaculture species around the world. The molecular mechanisms underlying heat tolerance is still poorly understood, especially at the post-transcriptional level including regulation of alternative splicing. In this study, existing RNA-Seq datasets were utilized to characterize the change of alternative splicing in catfish following heat treatment. Heat-tolerant and -intolerant catfish were differentiated by the time to lost equilibrium after heat stress. With heat stress, alternative splicing was generally increased. In heat-intolerant fish, the thermal stress induced 29.2% increases in alternative splicing events and 25.8% increases in alternatively spliced genes. A total of 282, 189, and 44 differential alternative splicing (DAS) events were identified in control-intolerant, control-tolerant, and intolerant-tolerant comparisons, corresponding to 252, 171, and 42 genes, respectively. Gene ontology analyses showed that genes involved in the molecular function of RNA binding were significantly enriched in DAS gene sets after heat stress in both heat-intolerant and -tolerant catfish compared with the control group. Similar results were also observed in the DAS genes between heat-intolerant and -tolerant catfish, and the biological process of RNA splicing was also enriched in this comparison, indicating the involvement of RNA splicing-related genes underlying heat tolerance. This is the first comprehensive study of alternative splicing in response to heat stress in fish species, providing insights into the molecular mechanisms of responses to the abiotic stress.
耐热性是气候变化下水产养殖物种的一个重要特征。鱼类是世界上最重要的经济水产养殖物种之一，针对其热应激反应的转录组研究已经开展。然而，鱼类耐热性的分子机制仍知之甚少，尤其是在转录后水平，包括可变剪接的调控。在本研究中，利用现有的 RNA-Seq 数据集来描述热应激后鱼类中可变剪接的变化。通过热应激后失去平衡的时间来区分耐热和不耐热的鱼类。热应激通常会增加可变剪接。在不耐热的鱼类中，热应激诱导了 29.2%的可变剪接事件和 25.8%的可变剪接基因增加。在对照不耐热与对照耐热、不耐热与耐热的比较中，分别鉴定出 282、189 和 44 个差异可变剪接（DAS）事件，分别对应 252、171 和 42 个基因。GO 分析表明，在热应激后，与对照组相比，耐热和不耐热鱼类的 DAS 基因集中，参与 RNA 结合分子功能的基因显著富集。在不耐热和耐热鱼类之间的 DAS 基因中也观察到了类似的结果，RNA 剪接的生物学过程也在此比较中富集，表明耐热性与 RNA 剪接相关基因有关。这是鱼类对热应激反应的可变剪接的首次全面研究，为非生物胁迫反应的分子机制提供了新的见解。
