Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental (CIIMAR). Terminal de Cruzeiros Do Porto de Leixões, Av. General Norton de Matos S/n, 4450-208, Matosinhos, Portugal.
Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental (CIIMAR). Terminal de Cruzeiros Do Porto de Leixões, Av. General Norton de Matos S/n, 4450-208, Matosinhos, Portugal.
Fish Shellfish Immunol. 2024 Apr;147:109431. doi: 10.1016/j.fsi.2024.109431. Epub 2024 Feb 10.
Paracentrotus lividus is the most abundant echinoid species in the North East Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Although there is abundant genomic information of the species, there is no deep characterisation of the genes involved in the immune response. Here, a reference transcriptome of male and female coelomocytes was produced. The generated P. lividus transcriptome assembly has 203,511 transcripts, N50 transcript length of 1079 bp, and more than 90% estimated gene completeness in Eukaryota and Metazoa BUSCO databases, respectively. Differential gene expression analyses showed 54 and 55 up-regulated genes in P. lividus female and male coelomocyte tissues, respectively. These results suggest a similar immune gene repertoire between sexes. To examine the immune response, P. lividus was challenged with Vibrio anguillarum, one of the candidate pathogens for bald disease. Immune parameters were evaluated at cell and humoral levels, as well as the expression analysis of immune related genes at an early response stage. No differences were found at cellular and humoral levels with the exception of the increase of nitric oxide in perivisceral fluid of challenged animals. At the gene expression level, a total of 2721 genes were upregulated in challenged animals, 13.6 times higher expression than control group. Our analysis revealed that four major KEGG pathways were enriched in challenged animals: Autophagy (KEGG:04140), Endocytosis (KEGG:04144), Phagosome (KEGG:04145) and Protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum (KEGG:04141). Several toll-like receptors (TLR), scavenger receptors cysteine-rich (SRCR) or nucleotide-binding oligomerisation domain like receptors (NLR) were identified as major family genes for pathogen recognition and immune defence. This study provides a valuable transcriptomic resource and unfolds the molecular basis of immune response to V. anguillarum exposure. Overall, our findings contribute to the conservation effort of the P. lividus populations, as well as its sustainable exploitation in an aquaculture context.
扁形动物是东北大西洋和地中海最丰富的海胆物种。尽管该物种有丰富的基因组信息，但对参与免疫反应的基因没有深入的特征描述。在这里，产生了雄性和雌性体腔细胞的参考转录组。生成的扁形动物转录组组装有 203511 个转录本，N50 转录本长度为 1079bp，在真核生物和Metazoa BUSCO 数据库中的估计基因完整性分别超过 90%。差异基因表达分析显示，在 P. lividus 雌性和雄性体腔细胞组织中分别有 54 个和 55 个上调基因。这些结果表明两性之间具有相似的免疫基因库。为了研究免疫反应，用候选病原体鳗弧菌(Vibrio anguillarum)对 P. lividus 进行了挑战。在细胞和体液水平以及早期反应阶段免疫相关基因的表达分析中评估了免疫参数。除了受感染动物的围内脏液中一氧化氮增加外，在细胞和体液水平上未发现差异。在基因表达水平上，在受感染动物中共上调了 2721 个基因，表达水平是对照组的 13.6 倍。我们的分析表明，在受感染动物中，有 4 个主要的 KEGG 途径富集：自噬(KEGG:04140)、内吞作用(KEGG:04144)、吞噬体(KEGG:04145)和内质网蛋白加工(KEGG:04141)。几种 Toll 样受体(TLR)、富含半胱氨酸的清道夫受体(SRCR)或核苷酸结合寡聚化结构域样受体(NLR)被鉴定为主要的病原体识别和免疫防御家族基因。本研究提供了有价值的转录组资源，并揭示了对鳗弧菌暴露的免疫反应的分子基础。总的来说，我们的研究结果为扁形动物种群的保护工作以及在水产养殖背景下的可持续利用做出了贡献。
