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Epigenetic regulation of gonadal and brain aromatase expression in a cichlid fish with environmental sex determination

ABSTRACT: We examined the methylation state of upstream intergenic regions associated with two aromatase genes (cyp19a1A and cyp19a1B) in P. pulcher, a cichlid fish with pH-based sex and male morph determination. Methylation levels in fry head and trunk and adult brain and gonad samples were assessed with a bisulfite amplicon sequencing assay and sequence data was processed through two pipelines to determine % methylation of individual CpG sites and abundance of specific patterns of methylated and unmethylated CpGs (i.e., epialleles).

ORGANISM(S): blank sample Pelvicachromis pulcher

PROVIDER: GSE135681 | GEO | 2020/07/20

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Neural crest (NC) is a vertebrate-specific embryonic progenitor cell population at the basis of important vertebrate features such as the craniofacial skeleton and pigmentation patterns. Despite the wide-ranging variation of NC-derived traits across vertebrates, the contribution of NC to species diversification remains underexplored. Here, leveraging the adaptive diversity of African Great Lakes' cichlid species, we combined comparative transcriptomics and population genomics to investigate the evolution of the NC genetic program in the context of their morphological divergence. Our analysis revealed substantial differences in transcriptional landscapes across somitogenesis, an embryonic period coinciding with NC development and migration. This included dozens of genes with described functions in the vertebrate NC gene regulatory network, several of which showed signatures of positive selection. Among candidates showing between-species expression divergence, we focused on teleost-specific paralogs of the NC-specifier sox10 (sox10a and sox10b) as prime candidates to influence NC development. These genes, expressed in NC cells, displayed remarkable spatio-temporal variation in cichlids, suggesting their contribution to interspecific morphological differences, such as craniofacial structures and pigmentation. Finally, through CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis, we demonstrated the functional divergence between cichlid sox10 paralogs, with the acquisition of a novel skeletogenic function by sox10a. When compared with teleost models zebrafish and medaka, our findings reveal that sox10 duplication, although retained in most teleost lineages, had variable functional fates across their phylogeny. Altogether, our study suggests that NC-related processes—particularly those controlled by sox10s—are involved in generating morphological diversification between species and lays the groundwork for further investigations into the mechanisms underpinning vertebrate NC diversification.

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Epigenetic regulation of gonadal and brain aromatase expression in a cichlid fish with environmental sex determination

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