Dataset Information

Diversity of Underwater Vocalizations in Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis).

ABSTRACT: Sound communication is important for underwater species. The wild population of the Chinese soft-shelled turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis) is listed as vulnerable. However, its vocalization, which can serve as the basis for ecological and evolutionary research, has not been studied. Here, we performed underwater recordings of 23 Chinese soft-shelled turtles of different ages and sexes and identified 720 underwater calls. The turtle calls were manually divided into 10 call types according to visual and aural inspection properties. The similarity test indicated that the manual division was reliable. We described the acoustic properties of the calls and the statistical analysis showed that the peak frequency of calls was significantly different between adult females and males, and also between subadults and adults. Similar to other aquatic turtles that prefer to live in deep water, Chinese soft-shelled turtles have a high vocal diversity and many harmonic calls, indicating that this highly aquatic species developed a variety of vocalizations to enhance their underwater communication, which helped them adapt to the complex and dim underwater environment. Furthermore, the turtles showed a tendency for vocalization to become more diverse with age.

SUBMITTER: Zhou L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10000088 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Diversity of Underwater Vocalizations in Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtle (<i>Pelodiscus sinensis</i>).

Zhou Lu L Lei Jinhong J Zhai Xiaofei X Lu Ningning N Shi Haitao H Wang Jichao J

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20230223 5

Sound communication is important for underwater species. The wild population of the Chinese soft-shelled turtle (<i>Pelodiscus sinensis</i>) is listed as vulnerable. However, its vocalization, which can serve as the basis for ecological and evolutionary research, has not been studied. Here, we performed underwater recordings of 23 Chinese soft-shelled turtles of different ages and sexes and identified 720 underwater calls. The turtle calls were manually divided into 10 call types according to vi ...[more]

PMID: 36899669

Similar Datasets

Project description:The Chinese soft-shelled (Pelodiscus sinensis) turtle exhibits obvious sex dimorphism, which leads to the higher economic and nutritional value of male individuals. Exogenous hormones can cause the transformation from male to female phenotype during gonadal differentiation. However, the molecular mechanism related to the sexual reversal process is unclear. In this study, we compared the difference between the small RNAs of male, female, and pseudo-female turtles by small RNA-seq to understand the sexual reversal process of Chinese soft-shelled turtles. A certain dose of estrogen can cause the transformation of Chinese soft-shelled turtles from male to female, which are called pseudo-female individuals. The result of small RNA-seq has revealed that the characteristics of pseudo-females are very similar to females, but are strikingly different from males. The number of the microRNAs (miRNAs) of male individuals was significantly less than the number of female individuals or pseudo-female individuals, while the expression level of miRNAs of male individuals were significantly higher than the other two types. Furthermore, we found 533 differentially expressed miRNAs, including 173 up-regulated miRNAs and 360 down-regulated miRNAs, in the process of transformation from male to female phenotype. Cluster analysis of the total 602 differential miRNAs among females, males, and pseudo-females showed that miRNAs played a crucial role during the sexual differentiation. Among these differential miRNAs, we found 12 miRNAs related to gonadal development and verified their expression by qPCR. The TR-qPCR results confirmed the differential expression of 6 of the 12 miRNAs: miR-26a-5p, miR-212-5p, miR-202-5p, miR-301a, miR-181b-3p and miR-96-5p were involved in sexual reversal process, which was consistent with the results of omics. Using these six miRNAs and some of their target genes, we constructed a network diagram related to gonadal development. We suggest that these miRNAs may play an important role in the process of effective sex reversal, which would contribute to the breeding of all male strains of Chinese soft-shelled turtles.

Project description:BackgroundAquatic animals show diverse body coloration, and the formation of animal body colour is a complicated process. Increasing evidence has shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) play important regulatory roles in many life processes. The role of miRNAs in pigmentation has been investigated in some species. However, the regulatory patterns of miRNAs in reptile pigmentation remain to be elucidated. In this study, we performed an integrated analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression profiles to explore corresponding regulatory patterns in embryonic body colour formation in the soft-shelled turtle Pelodiscus sinensis.ResultsWe identified 8 866 novel genes and 9 061 mature miRNAs in the skin of Chinese soft-shelled turtles in three embryonic stages (initial period: IP, middle period: MP, final period: FP). A total of 16 563 target genes of the miRNAs were identified. Furthermore, we identified 2 867, 1 840 and 4 290 different expression genes (DEGs) and 227, 158 and 678 different expression miRNAs (DEMs) in IP vs. MP, MP vs. FP, and IP vs. FP, respectively. Among which 72 genes and 25 miRNAs may be related to turtle pigmentation in embryonic development. Further analysis of the novel miRNA families revealed that some novel miRNAs related to pigmentation belong to the miR-7386, miR-138, miR-19 and miR-129 families. Novel_miR_2622 and novel_miR_2173 belong to the miR-19 family and target Kit and Gpnmb, respectively. The quantification of novel_miR_2622 and Kit revealed negative regulation, indicating that novel_miR_2622 may participate in embryonic pigmentation in P. sinensis by negatively regulating the expression of Kit.ConclusionsmiRNA act as master regulators of biological processes by controlling the expression of mRNAs. Considering their importance, the identified miRNAs and their target genes in Chinese soft-shelled turtle might be useful for investigating the molecular processes involved in pigmentation. All the results of this study may aid in the improvement of P. sinensis breeding traits for aquaculture.

Project description:BackgroundAs the primary source of protein for aquaculture, fishmeal has reached the extremity of sustainable development, our previous studies have proven that rice protein concentrate and squid paste are outstanding protein source and stimulant for Pelodiscus sinensis. However, little attention has been given to the molecular mechanism of the appetite modulated by the dietary nutrient factor, especially for a reptile. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate feed intake and brain-gut dynamic responses to dietary rice protein concentrate and squid paste in Chinese soft-shelled turtle Pelodiscus sinensis.MethodsThree isonitrogenous and isoenergetic practical diets were formulated including 60% fishmeal (CT), 42% fishmeal + 18% rice protein concentrate (RP) and 42% fishmeal + 18% rice protein concentrate + 1% squid paste (RPS), respectively. Microcapsule lysine was supplemented in RP and RPS diets to balance the amino acid profile. Turtles (initial weight 30.65 ± 0.97 g) were fed three times daily to apparent satiation. After the 8-week feeding trial, the turtles were exposed to 48h food deprivation, then the dynamic expression of the orexigenic and anorexigenic peptides were measured.ResultsThe results showed that no significant effect was observed on feed intake when fishmeal was replaced by rice protein concentrate (P = 0.421), while significantly improved feed intake was found by squid paste supplemented (P = 0.02). The mRNA expression of anorexigenic peptides, such as leptin receptor, insulin receptor, pro-opiomelanocortin, cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript, cholecystokinin (and its receptor) and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor in the brain increased significantly at 3 h past feeding (P < 0.05), and then decreased. Nevertheless, neuropeptide Y and peptide YY mRNA expression showed the valley at 3h and peak at 12h past feeding. Intestinal cholecystokinin receptor and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor mRNA expression showed no difference during the postprandial time (P > 0.05). The results suggested that squid paste is an outstanding stimulant for Pelodiscus sinensis. Furthermore, the orexigenic and anorexigenic peptides evaluated here might play an essential role in short-term fasting to this species, of which the dynamic expression levels were regulated by squid paste.

Dataset Information

Diversity of Underwater Vocalizations in Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis).

Publications

Diversity of Underwater Vocalizations in Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtle (<i>Pelodiscus sinensis</i>).

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets