Project description:Sex steroids play a key role in triggering sec differentiation in fish and the use of exogenous hormone treatment leads to partial or complete sex reversal. This phenomenon has attracted attention since the discovery taht even low environmental doses of exogenous steroids can adversely affect gonad morphology (ovotestis development) and induce reproductive failure. Modern genomic-based technologies have enhanced opportunities to find mechanisms of action (MOA) and dentify biomarkers for the toxic action of a compound. The goal of this study are to improve the understanding of feminization in fish by analyzing gene expression patterns in the gonads of rainbow trout fry after a chronic exposure to several doses (0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 ?g/L) of ethynylestradiol (EE2) and to offer target genes as potential biomarkers of ovotestis development. An all-male population of Rainbow trout fry was exposed during 76 days (from 60 to 136 days post-fertilization (dpf)) to five nominal concentrations of 17?-ethynylestradiol (0-solvent control-, 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 ?g EE2/L of water), using 3 tanks per condition. In total, 30 samples were analyzed independantly: 6 samples per concentration tested (two samples per tank, three tanks per concentration), each sample being a pool of 10 pairs of gonads.
Project description:Abstract. The molecular pathways in embryonic vertebrates leading to gonad formation in each sex are incompletely understood. The purpose of this study was to identify novel genes that could be associated with sex-specific gonadal differentiation in a fish, the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). This study was facilitated by a custom microarray based on 7,681 genes derived from embryonic rainbow trout gonad cDNA libraries and public databases. Gonad samples for total RNA isolation were obtained from pvasa-green fluorescent protein (pvasa-GFP) transgenic rainbow between 300 and 700 degree days of development post-fertilization. The transgenic fish permitted the collection of gonads from embryonic rainbow trout during the period of molecular sex differentiation in advance of any morphologically distinguishable characteristics of sex. A bioinformatic method was used with the microarray data that looked for strong associations in gene expression patterns between known sex differentiation genes (the target genes) and novel genes (the target-associated genes) previously not allied with sex differentiation in fishes. The expression patterns of representative targets genes from both sexes and their target-associated genes were independently confirmed by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to support the validity of the bioinformatics method employed. Numerous, novel genes were identified in the gonads of embryonic female and male rainbow trout that could be involved in sex-specific differentiation pathways in this fish. Embryonic gonads were removed by dissection from known genetic female (XX) and male (XY) rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) from a transgenic population where expression of GFP is controlled by vasa-gene regulatory elements (Yoshizaki et al. 2000; Takeuchi et al. 2002). These fish were maintained in incubators containing flowing freshwater (10°C) at the Ooizumi Research Station, Yamanashi, Japan. Ten female or male transgenic rainbow trout were randomly selected every 5 days, beginning at 30 days (i.e., 300 degree days = incubation temperature in °C x number of days) post fertilization through until 70 days (i.e., 700 degree days) post fertilization. The gonads from each sex, at each sampling time, were pooled and immediately frozen for subsequent total RNA isolation.
Project description:The aim of present study is to identify and quantify proteins involved in the events of fertilization and early embryo development using a label-free protein quantification method in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as an economically important fish species in aquaculture.
Project description:A rapid decline in temperature poses a major challenge for poikilothermic fish. The gene expression of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss having undergone such a cold shock (0 °C) and a control (5 °C) were compared in a microarray-based study.
Project description:Sex steroids play a key role in triggering sec differentiation in fish and the use of exogenous hormone treatment leads to partial or complete sex reversal. This phenomenon has attracted attention since the discovery taht even low environmental doses of exogenous steroids can adversely affect gonad morphology (ovotestis development) and induce reproductive failure. Modern genomic-based technologies have enhanced opportunities to find mechanisms of action (MOA) and dentify biomarkers for the toxic action of a compound. The goal of this study are to improve the understanding of feminization in fish by analyzing gene expression patterns in the gonads of rainbow trout fry after a chronic exposure to several doses (0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 μg/L) of ethynylestradiol (EE2) and to offer target genes as potential biomarkers of ovotestis development.
Project description:To study short term (48h) hepatic transcriptional changes and identify potential modes of action in primary rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) hepatocytes exposed to 0.03, 0.3, 3 and 30nM EE2. The transcriptional gene expression analysis involved a high density (60k) custom designed oligonucleotide salmonid microarray in combination with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Differently expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained after application of a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey posthoc test. Enrichment analysis was performed based on Gene Ontology (GO) to determine the biological roles of the DEGs. The obtained DEGs were further mapped against mammalian orthologs. The successfully mapped DEGs were further subjected to a gene network analysis based on well-curated mammalian protein -protein interactions, followed by a canonical and toxicity pathway analysis. The pathways and network analysis were performed in order to link DEGs to specific and toxicological/biological functions. Isolated primary rainbow trout hepatocytes were exposed to 0.03-30nM ethynylestradiol for 48h. The cells were sampled and used for gene expression analysis. A total of 4 biological replicates were analyzed for each concentration, including solvent (DMSO) control.
Project description:Identification of novel genes associated with molecular sex differentiation in the embryonic gonads of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)