Gill transcriptomes reveal expression changes of genes related with immune and ion transport under salinity stress in silvery pomfret (Pampus argenteus)

• Published in: Fish physiology and biochemistry 2020-08, Vol.46 (4), p.1255-1277
• Main Authors: Li, Juan, Xue, Liangyi, Cao, Mingyue, Zhang, Yu, Wang, Yajun, Xu, Shanliang, Zheng, Baoxiao, Lou, Zhengjia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal Anatomy; Animal Biochemistry; Animal Physiology; Animals; Base Sequence; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cardiac muscle; CCL19 protein; Cytokines; Down-Regulation; Environmental factors; Fish; Fishes - genetics; Fishes - immunology; Fishes - metabolism; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation; Genes; Gills - immunology; Gills - metabolism; Histology; IL-1β; Immune response; Interleukin 11; Ion transport; IP-10 protein; Life Sciences; Marine environment; Molecular Sequence Annotation; Morphology; Muscle contraction; Muscles; Muscular function; Next-generation sequencing; NLR Proteins - immunology; Osmosis; Osmotic Pressure; Random Allocation; Receptors; Receptors, Cytokine - immunology; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Salinity; Salinity effects; Salt Stress - genetics; Salt Stress - immunology; Salt Stress - physiology; Signal Transduction; Smooth muscle; Survival; TLR2 protein; Toll-like receptors; Toll-Like Receptors - metabolism; Transcriptome; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Up-Regulation; Zoology
• ISSN: 0920-1742; 1573-5168
• DOI: 10.1007/s10695-020-00786-9

Salinity is a major ecological factor in the marine environment, and extremely important for the survival, development, and growth of fish. In this study, gill transcriptomes were examined by high-throughput sequencing at three different salinities (12 ppt as low salinity, 22 ppt as control salinity, and 32 ppt as high salinity) in an importantly economical fish silvery pomfret. A total of 187 genes were differentially expressed, including 111 up-regulated and 76 down-regulated transcripts in low-salinity treatment group and 107 genes differentially expressed, including 74 up-regulated and 33 down-regulated transcripts in high-salinity treatment group compared with the control group, respectively. Some pathways including NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, Toll-like receptor pathway, cardiac muscle contraction, and vascular smooth muscle contraction were significantly enriched. qPCR analysis further confirmed that mRNA expression levels of immune ( HSP90A , IL-1β , TNFα , TLR2 , IP-10 , MIG , CCL19 , and IL-11 ) and ion transport–related genes ( WNK2 , NPY2R , CFTR , and SLC4A2 ) significantly changed under salinity stress. Low salinity stress caused more intensive expression changes of immune-related genes than high salinity. These results imply that salinity stress may affect immune function in addition to regulating osmotic pressure in silvery pomfret.