Liu Pan, Liu Yanchao, Zhu Junxian, Chen Chen, Ji Liqin, Liu Xiaoli, Hong Xiaoyou, Wei Chengqing, Zhu Xinping, Xu Qiaoqing, Zhou Jiang, Li Wei
College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434020, China.
Key Laboratory of Tropical & Subtropical Fishery Resource Application & Cultivation of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Pearl River Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Guangzhou 510380, China.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Nov 27;14(23):3426. doi: 10.3390/ani14233426.
The Chinese soft-shelled turtle () is an economically important species in aquaculture, and its growth pattern is characterized by significant sexual dimorphism. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of this phenomenon have mostly been investigated in the gonadal tissues of , and there are no articles on sex differentiation from the brain of . Here, we analyzed transcriptomes of the brains of adult male and female using high-throughput Illumina sequencing technology, establishing a set of differential genes and differential transcription factors. The data showed that there were 908 genes with significant differences in expression, of which 357 genes were up-regulated and 551 genes were down-regulated. We annotated using Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and screened some genes and pathways related to growth. There were 282 growth-related differential genes and 181 sex-related differential genes. We screened the genes' growth hormone receptor () and vascular endothelial growth factor A (), which may be related to the growth of . The pathways related to the growth and development of are the growth hormone synthesis, secretion, and action pathway; the MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) pathway; and the calcium signaling pathway. In addition, through gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), we screened out two genes, LIM homeobox protein 1 () and fibroblast growth factor 7 (), which are related to both growth and sex differentiation, and through protein interaction analysis of these genes, we screened out eight genes, including , , , fibroblast growth factor 4 (), , , GLI family zinc finger 2 (), and neuronal differentiation 1 (), and verified the expression levels of these eight genes in the brain of the by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR), which supported the reliability and accuracy of our transcriptome analysis. Our study provides a solid foundation for analyzing the mechanisms of sexual-dimorphic growth of and even other turtles.
中华鳖是水产养殖中具有重要经济价值的物种，其生长模式具有显著的两性差异特征。然而，这一现象的潜在分子机制大多是在中华鳖的性腺组织中进行研究的，尚无关于中华鳖脑性别分化的文章。在此，我们利用高通量Illumina测序技术分析了成年雄性和雌性中华鳖脑的转录组，建立了一组差异基因和差异转录因子。数据显示，有908个基因表达存在显著差异，其中357个基因上调，551个基因下调。我们使用基因本体论（GO）和京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）进行注释，并筛选出一些与生长相关的基因和途径。有282个与生长相关的差异基因和181个与性别相关的差异基因。我们筛选出可能与中华鳖生长相关的生长激素受体基因和血管内皮生长因子A基因。与中华鳖生长发育相关的途径是生长激素合成、分泌和作用途径；丝裂原活化蛋白激酶（MAPK）途径；以及钙信号通路。此外，通过基因集富集分析（GSEA），我们筛选出两个与生长和性别分化均相关的基因，即LIM同源盒蛋白1基因和成纤维细胞生长因子7基因，并通过对这些基因进行蛋白质相互作用分析，筛选出8个基因，包括、、、成纤维细胞生长因子4基因、、、GLI家族锌指蛋白2基因和神经分化1基因，并通过实时定量PCR（qRT-PCR）验证了这8个基因在中华鳖脑中的表达水平，这支持了我们转录组分析的可靠性和准确性。我们的研究为分析中华鳖乃至其他龟类两性差异生长的机制提供了坚实的基础。
