Li Shizhu, Lin Genmei, Fang Wenyu, Huang Peilin, Gao Dong, Huang Jing, Xie Jingui, Lu Jianguo
School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China.
Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Zhuhai, China.
Front Genet. 2020 Jul 16;11:709. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.00709. eCollection 2020.
Yellowfin seabream (), a protandrous hermaphroditic fish, is a good model for studying the mechanism of sex reversal. However, limited knowledge is known about the genetic information related to reproduction and sex differentiation in this species. Here, we performed transcriptome sequencing analysis of the testis, ovotestis, and ovary to identify sex-related genes in yellowfin seabream. The results assembled 71,765 unigenes in which 16,126 and 17,560 unigenes were differentially expressed in the ovotestis and ovary compared to the testis, respectively. The most differentially expressed gene (DEG)-enriched Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and GO pathways were closely associated with the synthesis of sex steroid hormones. Functional analyses identified 55 important sex-related DEGs, including 32 testis-biased DEGs (, , and , etc.), 20 ovary-biased DEGs (, , and , etc.), and 3 ovotestis-biased DEGs (, , and ). Furthermore, the testis-specific expression of and the brain-pituitary-ovary axis expression of were characterized, suggesting that they might play important roles in sex differentiation in yellowfin seabream. Our present work provided an important molecular basis for elucidating the mechanisms underlying sexual transition and reproductional regulation in yellowfin seabream.
黄鳍鲷是一种雄性先熟的雌雄同体鱼类，是研究性别逆转机制的良好模型。然而，关于该物种中与繁殖和性别分化相关的遗传信息，我们所知有限。在此，我们对黄鳍鲷的精巢、雌雄同体性腺和卵巢进行了转录组测序分析，以鉴定与性别相关的基因。结果共组装得到71,765个单基因，其中与精巢相比，雌雄同体性腺和卵巢中分别有16,126个和17,560个单基因差异表达。差异表达基因（DEG）富集最多的京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）和基因本体论（GO）通路与性类固醇激素的合成密切相关。功能分析鉴定出55个重要的与性别相关的DEG，包括32个偏向精巢表达的DEG（如某某等）、20个偏向卵巢表达的DEG（如某某等）和3个偏向雌雄同体性腺表达的DEG（如某某等）。此外，还对某某基因在精巢中的特异性表达以及某某基因在脑-垂体-卵巢轴中的表达进行了表征，表明它们可能在黄鳍鲷的性别分化中发挥重要作用。我们目前的工作为阐明黄鳍鲷性转变和生殖调控的潜在机制提供了重要的分子基础。
