Project description:The pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) is a commercial anadromous fish species of the family Salmonidae. The species has a peculiar life cycle that includes spawning migration from marine to freshwater environments, which is accompanied by significant adaptive changes in the body, both the physiological and biochemical. This study described and revealed the variability of blood plasma proteomes of female and male pink salmon collected from three different biotopes - marine, estuarine and riverine - that the fish pass through spawning migration. Identification and comparative analysis of pink salmon blood plasma protein profiles were performed using proteomic and bioinformatic approaches. Blood proteomes of female and male spawners collected from different biotopes were qualitatively and quantitatively distinguished. Females differed primarily by proteins associated with reproductive system development (certain vitellogenin and choriogenin), lipid transport (fatty acid binding protein) and energy production (fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase), and males - by proteins involved in blood coagulation (fibrinogen), immune response (lectins) and reproductive processes (vitellogenin). Differentially expressed sex-specific proteins were implicated in proteolysis (aminopeptidases), platelet activation (β- and γ-chain fibrinogen), cell growth and differentiation (a protein containing the TGF_BETA_2 domain) and lipid transport processes (vitellogenin and apolipoprotein). The results obtained are of fundamental and practical importance, providing to the existing knowledge of biochemical adaptations to spawning of pink salmon, representative of the economically important migratory fish species.
Project description:While numerous examples of male reproductive disorders have been reported in vertebrates, invertebrate’s organisms have been considerably less studied, despite their ecological importance. The aim of this study is to investigate male infertility in the amphipod Gammarus fossarum, a sentinel species in freshwater risk assessment. Thus in laboratory, we exposed male gammarids to different concentrations of three different xenobiotics: cadmium, and two potent arthropods endocrine-disruptor chemicals, methoxyfenozide and pyriproxyfen. Afterward, we investigated alterations of reproductive health by sperm quality markers and proteomes dynamics on the male reproductive tissue by nanoLC-MS/MS for evidencing proteins modulated by toxic exposure.
Project description:The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, exhibits several environmentally cued polyphenisms, in which discrete, alternative phenotypes are produced. At low density parthenogenetic females produce unwinged female progeny, but at high density females produce progeny that develop with wings. These alternative phenotypes represent a solution to the competing demands of dispersal and reproduction. Males also develop as either winged or unwinged, but these alternatives are determined by a genetic polymorphism. Winged and unwinged males are morphologically less distinct from each other than winged and unwinged females, possibly because males experience fewer trade-offs between dispersal and reproduction. To assess whether shared physiological differences mirror the shared morphological differences that characterize the wing polyphenism and polymorphism, we used a cDNA microarray representing an estimated 10% of the coding genome (1734 genes) to examine differential transcript accumulation between winged and unwinged females and males. We identified several transcripts that differentially accumulate between winged and unwinged morphs in both sexes, the majority of which are involved in energy production. Unexpectedly, the extent of differential transcript accumulation between winged and unwinged morphs was greater for adult males than for adult females. Together, these results suggest not only that similar physiological differences underlie the polyphenism and polymorphism, but that male morphs, like females, are subject to trade-offs between reproduction and dispersal that are reflected in levels of transcript accumulation and possibly genome-wide patterns of gene regulation. These data also provide a baseline for future studies of the molecular and physiological basis of life history trade-offs. Keywords: Transcript levels were compared between winged and unwinged male and female pea aphids, for both nymphs and adults.
2007-06-05 | GSE8008 | GEO
Project description:A supergene determines highly divergent male reproductive morphs in the ruff
Project description:Purpose: Identify differentially expressed genes between 5 pea aphid morphs Methods: Collected whole bodies of 30 adult aphids of each of the five pea morphs and three clones (total of 15 samples)
Project description:The discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciatus) is an ornamental fish, which occupies important position on the freshwater aquarium trade. We built two cDNA libraries from an adult male brain and an adult female brain, and performed RNA-sequencing for identifying sex-biased candidate genes , a total number of 40209 non-redundant genes (unigenes) were obtained, of which 250 unigenes were significant overexpressed in the male brain, and 436 unigenes were significant overexpressed in the female. A total of 439 miRNAs were identified, of which 60 miRNAs were differentially expressed between male brain and female brain. These results can provide important evidence for better understanding the molecular mechanisms of the brain's amphoteric dimorphism in discus fish
Project description:In order to identify gene expression difference between marine and freshwater stickleback populations, we compared the transcriptomes of seven adult tissues (eye, gill, heart, hypothalumus, liver, pectoral muscle, telencephalon) between a marine population sampled from the mouth of the Little Campbell river in British Columbia (LITC) and a freshwater population (Fishtrap Creek, FTC) from northern Washington. For each population, the sampled individuals were the lab-reared progeny of a single pair of wild-caught parents. Four to five fish from each population were used as biological replicates for each of the seven tissues. For each population, the sampled individuals were the lab-reared progeny of a single pair of wild-caught parents. All fish were of similar age and were raised in the same aquarium (salinity: 3.5 ppt), with a plastic divider separating the marine and freshwater groups. One male and four females were sampled from each population. Microarray experiments were performed in a 2-color format on custom Agilent arrays: experimental RNA samples were labeled with Cy5, and the common reference RNA sample was labeled with Cy3. The reference RNA was total RNA isolated from a large number of 7-day-post-hatch embryos from the freshwater population of Bear Paw Lake, Alaska (BEPA). One technical replicate was used for each array, and one of the hypothalamus samples (Hyp_FTC#3) was excluded from further analysis due to poor quality indicators. FTC#1 liver and LITC#2 pectoral muscle samples did not yield RNA of sufficient quality for the microarray experiment, and were also excluded from hybridization.
Project description:We aimed to specifically identify the major egg yolk proteins (i.e. vitellogenin) in the amphipod Gammarus fossarum, a sentinel species in freshwater risk assessment. Vitellogenin production in female is vital for the embryonic development and its production in male organism is commonly employed as a biomarker of exposition to xenoestrogens in fish. We performed a shotgun proteomics analysis on embryos and ovaries at different stages of their development. The proteome dynamics over the cycle was analyzed to correlate on the first hand proteins which are accumulating along vitellogenesis and on the other hand, proteins with decrease amounts long embryogenesis. This information led to the proposal of putative novel VTG candidates. Our data provides the first large scale molecular description of a crustacean reproductive cycle, while our temporal analysis evidenced seven candidates proteins as “true vitellogenin” in G. fossarum.
Project description:After the end of the last ice age, ancestrally marine threespine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) have undergone an adaptive radiation into freshwater environments throughout the Northern Hemisphere, creating an excellent model system for studying molecular adaptation and speciation. Stickleback populations are reproductively isolated to varying degrees, despite the fact that they can be crossed in the lab to produce viable offspring. Ecological and behavioral factors have been suggested to underlie incipient stickleback speciation. However, reproductive proteins represent a previously unexplored driver of speciation. As mediators of gamete recognition during fertilization, reproductive proteins both create and maintain species boundaries. Gamete recognition proteins are also frequently found to be rapidly evolving, and their divergence may culminate in reproductive isolation and ultimately speciation. As an initial investigation into the contribution of reproductive proteins to stickleback reproductive isolation, we characterized the egg coat proteome of threespine stickleback eggs. In agreement with other teleosts, we find that stickleback egg coats are comprised of homologs to the zona pellucida (ZP) proteins ZP1 and ZP3. We explore aspects of stickleback ZP protein biology, including glycosylation, disulfide bonding, and sites of synthesis, and find many substantial differences compared to their mammalian homologs. Furthermore, molecular evolutionary analyses indicate that ZP3, but not ZP1, has experienced positive Darwinian selection across teleost fish. Taken together, these changes to stickleback ZP protein architecture suggest that the egg coats of stickleback fish, and perhaps fish more generally, have evolved to fulfill a more protective functional role than their mammalian counterparts.
Project description:After the end of the last ice age, ancestrally marine threespine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) have undergone an adaptive radiation into freshwater environments throughout the Northern Hemisphere, creating an excellent model system for studying molecular adaptation and speciation. Stickleback populations are reproductively isolated to varying degrees, despite the fact that they can be crossed in the lab to produce viable offspring. Ecological and behavioral factors have been suggested to underlie incipient stickleback speciation. However, reproductive proteins represent a previously unexplored driver of speciation. As mediators of gamete recognition during fertilization, reproductive proteins both create and maintain species boundaries. Gamete recognition proteins are also frequently found to be rapidly evolving, and their divergence may culminate in reproductive isolation and ultimately speciation. As an initial investigation into the contribution of reproductive proteins to stickleback reproductive isolation, we characterized the egg coat proteome of threespine stickleback eggs. In agreement with other teleosts, we find that stickleback egg coats are comprised of homologs to the zona pellucida (ZP) proteins ZP1 and ZP3. We explore aspects of stickleback ZP protein biology, including glycosylation, disulfide bonding, and sites of synthesis, and find many substantial differences compared to their mammalian homologs. Furthermore, molecular evolutionary analyses indicate that ZP3, but not ZP1, has experienced positive Darwinian selection across teleost fish. Taken together, these changes to stickleback ZP protein architecture suggest that the egg coats of stickleback fish, and perhaps fish more generally, have evolved to fulfill a more protective functional role than their mammalian counterparts.