Project description:Effect of High Temperature on Immune Response of Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) by Transcriptome Analysis To understand the immune response mechanisms of this fish in high temperature circumstance, the transcriptomic profiles of the spleens from grass carp groups undergoing heat stress and normal temperature were investigated.
Project description:Purpose:Salinity is an important environmental factor that affects the physiological activities of fish. The goals of this study are investigating the effect of different saline-alkali stress on grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella). Methods: Grass carp individuals, averaging 12 cm in body length, were obtained from Duofu fish farm (Wuhan, China) and cultured at recirculating aquaculture system for 2 weeks before the experiment began. For the challenge, all grass carp were randomly divided into three groups, and then cultured at saline-alkali water with the concentration of 0, 3‰ and 6‰. After 30 days, some grass crap cultured at 3‰ and 6‰ saline-alkali water were injured. At the same time, gill samples of grass carp were collected from 0, 3‰ (grass carp was not injured), 3‰ (grass carp was injured), 6‰ (grass carp was not injured) and 6‰ (grass carp was injured)saline-alkali groups. Total RNA of all samples was isolated using TRIzol® Reagent (Invitrogen) according to the manufacturer's introduction. RNA integrity was assessed using an Agilent 2100 bioanalyzer (Agilent, USA). Samples with RNA integrity numbers (RINs) ≥ 7.5 were subjected to cDNA library construction using TruseqTM RNA sample prep Kit (Illumina). Results:A total of 15 were processed for transcriptome sequencing, generating 94.99Gb Clean Data. At least 5.76Gb clean data were generated for each sample with minimum 91.87% of clean data achieved quality score of Q30. Clean reads of each sample were mapped to specified reference genome. Mapping ratio ranged from 88.59% to 92.84%. The expression of genes was quantified and differentially expressed genes were identified based on their expression.Criteria for differentially expressed genes was set as Fold Change(FC)≥1.5 and Pvalue<0.05. Fold change(FC) refers to the ratio of gene expression in two samples. These DEGs were further processed for functional annotation and enrichment analysis. Conclusions: Our study represents Effects and molecular regulation mechanisms of saline-alkali stress on the healthy grass carp by using RNA-seqtechnology. Our results show that saline-alkali stress will impair the immune system of grass carp.
Project description:The use of some antibiotics, including florfenicol and enrofloxacin, is allowed in aquaculture in China. Accordingly, to better address the concerns and questions associated with the impact of administered enrofloxacin and florfenicol to grass carp, here we investigated the transcriptome of the intestine of C. idella treated with these oral antibiotics. The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth evaluation of the antibiotic-induced patterns and dynamics of the microbiota grass carp and the potential mechanism involved.
Project description:Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus), the world’s largest aquaculture fish species, exhibits superior growth in females compared to males. However, the lengthy sexual maturation period of four to five years poses a significant obstacle to the genetic reproduction and breeding of grass carp. Consequently, classical methods such as gonadogenesis or sex reversal through steroid treatment, employed for breeding all-female grass carp, demand considerable time and effort. In this study, we developed an super-fast breeding strategy for generating all-female grass carp in a total of half a year, using a surrogate production method. We first characterized grass carp female germline stem cells (GSCs) from genetic female juveniles at three months post-fertilization (mpf). The female GSCs with XX chromosomes were then transplanted into germ cell-depleted zebrafish larvae at five days post-fertilization (dpf). The transplanted grass carp XX germ cells underwent rapid spermatogenesis in the zebrafish recipient. At three months after transplantation, all zebrafish recipients had developed into males capable of producing the all-X sperm of the grass carp. By using these sperm to fertilize wildtype grass carp eggs, we successfully produced an all-female grass carp offspring. This groundbreaking achievement highlights the potential of surrogate production in the genetic breeding of valuable fish species, and opens a new avenue for advancing genetic breeding in aquaculture.
Project description:Because antibiotics have been widely used to prevent severe losses due to infectious fishery diseases, the liberal application and overuse of antibiotics has led to the spread and evolution of bacterial resistance, food safety hazards, and environmental issues. The use of some antibiotics, including florfenicol and enrofloxacin, is allowed in aquaculture in China. Accordingly, to better address the concerns and questions associated with the impact of administered enrofloxacin and florfenicol to grass carp, here we investigated the immune response, bacterial diversity, and transcriptome of the intestine of C. idella treated with these oral antibiotics. The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth evaluation of the antibiotic-induced patterns and dynamics of the microbiota grass carp and the potential mechanism involved.
Project description:<p>Background The gut microbiota plays a significant role in modulating the growth and function of host muscle, and microbiota transplantation experiments provide compelling evidence of its capacity to improve muscle quality. Feeding faba beans improves the muscle quality of Yellow River carp. However, the changes in gut microbiota, along with the specific microorganisms, metabolic pathways, and regulatory mechanisms linked to the enhancement of muscle quality following faba bean consumption remain to be elucidated.</p><p>Results After a 6-week feeding trial with faba beans, growth performance decreased, but muscle texture improved (P < 0.05). Gut microbiota structure also changed, with increased relative abundances of Aeromonas, ZOR0006, Cetobacterium, and Atopobium. Following 8 weeks of whole-intestinal microbiota transplantation (WIMT) from faba bean-fed donors to basal diet-fed recipients of Yellow River carp, growth performance remained unchanged (P > 0.05), while muscle texture improved (P < 0.05). This improvement was mainly due to increased small-diameter muscle fibers, higher collagen levels, and reduced muscle fat content (P < 0.05), which partially replicated the muscle texture of donor fish. Moreover, WIMT promotes intestinal structure and barrier integrity, with significant changes in gut microbiota structure and metabolic profile. WIMT improved the muscle quality of Yellow River carp by regulating mitochondrial autophagy and adipocytokine signaling pathways through the gut-muscle axis. Cetobacterium somerae (C. somerae) and its metabolites, such as acetic acid, played a crucial role in this process. Further feeding experiments demonstrated that C. somerae and acetic acid reduced the crude fat content of muscle while increasing the crude protein and collagen (P < 0.05). C. somerae also mitigated muscle protein degradation under inflammatory and enhanced collagen (P < 0.05), thereby improving muscle texture.</p><p>Conclusion This study establishes that gut microbiota enhance muscle quality in Yellow River carp through WIMT, identifies C. somerae and its metabolite acetic acid as key contributors. The findings provide novel evidence for fish gut-muscle axis research and offer new scientific basis for improving Yellow River carp muscle quality.</p>
Project description:Drought is a major limiting constraint to faba bean production worldwide, including Tunisia. However, molecular mechanisms underlying faba bean responses to drought stress are not well understood. In this context, transcriptome analysis by RNA-seq was performed to investigate drought-related genes and construct a network of faba bean drought stress response and tolerance. De novo assembly of the transcriptome generated 26,728 differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Of these, 13,920 were up-regulated and 12,808 down-regulated in faba bean drought-stressed leaves. Moreover, a total of 10,800 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 2130 transcription factors involved in major metabolic pathways including abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent and -independent signaling pathway were identified. GO, KOG and KEGG enrichment analyses revealed that these DEGs were involved in several important processes including photosynthesis, flavonoid biosynthesis, response to stimulus and abiotic stress, reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers, signal transduction, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and transporters, suggesting the involvement of these important pathways in faba bean response to water deficit. Various stress proteins such as late embryogenesis abundant proteins (LEA), dehydrins (DHNs) and heat shock proteins (HSPs) have been identified and their expression was robustly upregulated in drought-stressed leaves, indicating their key contribution to drought response and adaptation by conferring protection and providing stability to faba bean plant cellular processes under water deficit. The reliability of the RNA-seq results was confirmed by the analysis of 10 randomly selected genes using qRT-PCR. Taken together, these findings help advancing our knowledge and can guide breeding programs aimed at improving the tolerance of faba bean to drought stress.