Background: Genetic maps characterizing the inheritance patterns of traits and markers have been developed for a wide range of species and used to study questions in biomedicine, agriculture, ecology and evolutionary biology. The status of rainbow trout genetic maps has progressed significantly over the last decade due to interest in this species in aquaculture and sport fisheries, and as a model research organism for studies related to carcinogenesis, toxicology, comparative immunology, disease ecology, physiology and nutrition. We constructed a second generation genetic map for rainbow trout using microsatellite markers to facilitate the identification of quantitative trait loci for traits affecting aquaculture production efficiency and the extraction of comparative information from the genome sequences of model fish species.

The rainbow trout genetic linkage groups have been assigned to specific chromosomes in the OSU (2N ¼ 60) strain using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with BAC probes containing genes mapped to each linkage group. There was a rough correlation between chromosome size and size of the genetic linkage map in centimorgans for the genetic maps based on recombination from the female parent. Chromosome size and structure have a major impact on the female:male recombination ratio, which is much higher (up to 10:1 near the centromeres) on the larger metacentric chromosomes compared to smaller acrocentric chromosomes. Eighty percent of the BAC clones containing duplicate genes mapped to a single chromosomal location, suggesting that diploidization resulted in substantial divergence of intergenic regions. The BAC clones that hybridized to both duplicate loci were usually located in the distal portion of the chromosome. Duplicate genes were almost always found at a similar location on the chromosome arm of two different chromosome pairs, suggesting that most of the chromosome rearrangements following tetraploidization were centric fusions and did not involve homeologous chromosomes. The set of BACs compiled for this research will be especially useful in construction of genome maps and identification of QTL for important traits in other salmonid fishes.

Expressed sequence tag (EST) projects have produced extremely valuable resources for identifying genes affecting phenotypes of interest. A large-scale EST sequencing project for rainbow trout was initiated to identify and functionally annotate as many unique transcripts as possible. Over 45,000 5′ ESTs were obtained by sequencing clones from a single normalized library constructed using mRNA from six tissues. The production of this sequence data and creation of a rainbow trout Gene Index eliminating redundancy and providing annotation for these sequences will facilitate research in this species.

Background: Current literature and our previous results on expression patterns of oocytespecific genes and transcription factors suggest a global but highly regulated maternal mRNA degradation at the time of embryonic genome activation (EGA). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding regulatory RNAs (19-23 nucleotides) that regulate gene expression by guiding target mRNA cleavage or translational inhibition. These regulatory RNAs are potentially involved in the degradation of maternally inherited mRNAs during early embryogenesis.

Myostatin is a potent negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth. Although several cDNA clones have been characterized in different vertebrates, the genomic organization and bioactivity of non-mammalian homologs have not. The intron/exon organization and promoter subsequence analysis of two rainbow trout myostatin genes, rtMSTN-1a and rtMSTN-1b (formerly 1 and 2 respectively), as well as a quantitative assessment of their embryonic, larval, and adult tissue expression profiles are reported herein. Each gene was similarly organized into three exons of 490, 368, and 1600 bp for MSTN-1a and 486, 386, and 1419 bp for MSTN-1b. Comparative mapping of coding regions from several vertebrate myostatin genes revealed a common organization between species, including conserved pre-mRNA splice sites; the first among the fishes and the second across all vertebrate species. In silico subsequence analysis of the promoter regions identified E-boxes and other putative myogenic response elements. However, the number and diversity of elements were considerably less than those found in mammalian promoters or in the recently characterized zebrafish MSTN-2 gene. A quantitative analysis of the embryonic expression profile for both genes indicates that rtMSTN-1a expression is consistently greater than that of rtMSTN-1b and neither gene is significantly expressed throughout gastrulation. Expression of both steadily increases fourfold during somitogenesis and subsides as this period ends. After eyeing, however, rtMSTN-1a mRNA levels ultimately rise 20-fold by day 49 and peak before hatching and yolk sac absorption (YSA). Levels of rtMSTN-1b rise similarly, but do not peak before YSA. An analysis of adult (2-year-old fish) tissue expression indicates that both transcripts are present in most tissues although levels are highest in brain, testes, eyes, muscle, and surprisingly spleen. These studies suggest that strong selective pressures have preserved the genomic organization of myostatin genes throughout evolution. However, the different expression profiles and putative promoter elements in fishes versus mammals suggests that limitations in myostatin function may have evolved recently.