Key Laboratory of Aquatic Genomics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing Key Laboratory of Fishery Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Beijing 100141, China.
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Dec 25;25(1):321. doi: 10.3390/ijms25010321.
Epigenetic modifications are critical in precisely regulating gene expression. The common carp () is an economically important fish species, and females exhibit faster growth rates than males. However, the studies related to epigenetic modifications in the common carp gonads are limited. In this study, we conducted the Assay for Transposase Accessible Chromatin sequencing (ATAC-seq) and Bisulfite sequencing (BS-seq) to explore the roles of epigenetic modifications in the common carp gonads. We identified 84,207 more accessible regions and 77,922 less accessible regions in ovaries compared to testes, and some sex-biased genes showed differential chromatin accessibility in their promoter regions, such as and . Motif enrichment analysis showed that transcription factors (TFs) associated with embryonic development and cell proliferation were heavily enriched in ovaries, and the TFs Foxl2 and SF1 were only identified in ovaries. We also analyzed the possible regulations between chromatin accessibility and gene expression. By BS-seq, we identified 2087 promoter differentially methylated genes (promoter-DMGs) and 5264 gene body differentially methylated genes (genebody-DMGs) in CG contexts. These genebody-DMGs were significantly enriched in the Wnt signaling pathway, TGF-beta signaling pathway, and GnRH signaling pathway, indicating that methylation in gene body regions could play an essential role in sex maintenance, just like methylation in promoter regions. Combined with transcriptomes, we revealed that the expression of , , and was negatively correlated with their methylation levels in promoter regions. Our study on the epigenetic modifications of gonads contributes to elucidating the molecular mechanism of sex differentiation and sex maintenance in the common carp.
表观遗传修饰在精确调控基因表达方面起着关键作用。鲤鱼是一种重要的经济鱼类,其雌性的生长速度快于雄性。然而,关于鲤鱼性腺中表观遗传修饰的研究还很有限。在这项研究中,我们进行了转座酶可及染色质测序(ATAC-seq)和亚硫酸氢盐测序(BS-seq),以探讨表观遗传修饰在鲤鱼性腺中的作用。我们发现,与精巢相比,卵巢中可及区域有 84,207 个,不可及区域有 77,922 个,一些性别偏向基因在其启动子区域表现出不同的染色质可及性,如 和 。基序富集分析表明,与胚胎发育和细胞增殖相关的转录因子(TFs)在卵巢中大量富集,Foxl2 和 SF1 这两个 TF 仅在卵巢中被鉴定到。我们还分析了染色质可及性与基因表达之间的可能调控关系。通过 BS-seq,我们在 CG 背景下鉴定了 2087 个启动子差异甲基化基因(promoter-DMGs)和 5264 个基因体差异甲基化基因(genebody-DMGs)。这些基因体差异甲基化基因在 Wnt 信号通路、TGF-β 信号通路和 GnRH 信号通路中显著富集,表明基因体区域的甲基化可能在性别维持中发挥重要作用,就像启动子区域的甲基化一样。结合转录组数据,我们揭示了 、 和 的表达与它们在启动子区域的甲基化水平呈负相关。我们对性腺的表观遗传修饰的研究有助于阐明鲤鱼性别分化和性别维持的分子机制。