Transcriptional Assessment by Microarray Analysis and Large-Scale Meta-analysis of the Metabolic Capacity of Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Tissues to Cope With Reduced Nutrient Availability in Gilthead Sea Bream (Sparus aurata L.)

Abstract

The effects of nutrient availability on the transcriptome of cardiac and skeletal muscle tissues was assessed in juvenile gilthead sea bream fed with a standard diet at two feeding levels: i) full ration size and ii) 70% satiation followed by a finishing phase at the maintenance ration. Microarray analysis evidenced a characteristic transcriptomic profile for each muscle tissue following changes in oxidative capacity (heart > red skeletal muscle > white skeletal muscle). The transcriptome of heart and secondly that of red skeletal muscle were highly responsive to nutritional changes, whereas that of glycolytic white skeletal muscle showed less ability to respond. The highly expressed and nutritionally regulated genes of heart were mainly related to signal transduction and transcriptional regulation. In contrast, those of white muscle were enriched in gene ontology (GO) terms related to proteolysis and protein ubiquitination. Microarray metaanalysis using the bioinformatic tool Fish and Chips (http://fishandchips.genouest.org/index.php) showed the close association of a representative cluster of white skeletal muscle with some of cardiac and red skeletal muscle, and many GO terms related to mitochondrial function appeared to be common links between them. A second round of cluster comparisons revealed that mitochondriarelated GOs also linked differentially expressed genes of heart with those of liver from cortisol-treated gilthead sea bream. These results show that mitochondria are among the first responders to environmental and nutritional stress stimuli in gilthead sea bream, and functional phenotyping of this cellular organelle is highly promising to obtain reliable markers of growth performance and well-being in this fish species.

Dietary supplementation of heat-treatedGracilariaandUlvaseaweeds enhanced acute hypoxia tolerance in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata)

“…It is also important to note that in both groups fed heat-treated SW diets the heart showed a more marked response than liver tissue in terms of the number of differentially expressed genes during recovery. This feature is not surprising, since sea bream cardiac muscle was previously reported in a microarray study to be the most responsive to nutrient restriction when compared with skeletal white and red muscle (Calduch-Giner et al, 2014). This probably reflects the high metabolic plasticity of heart as a tissue that must be highly regulated to maintain its essential functions.…”

Growth-promoting effects of sustained swimming in fingerlings of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata L.)

“…Therefore, in order to obtain energy, amino acid oxidation had to increase in the exercised group, as reflected by the significant increase in mitochondrial CS activity. A meta-analysis of microarray gene expression profiling shows that mitochondria are among the first responders to nutritional and environmental stressors in gilthead sea bream (Calduch-Giner et al 2014). For instance, the gene expression of CS is up-regulated by thermal stress to cope with the enhanced oxidative capacity (Bermejo-Nogales et al 2014).…”

Gene Expression Profiling Reveals Functional Specialization along the Intestinal Tract of a Carnivorous Teleostean Fish (Dicentrarchus labrax)

“…Although comparisons across studies in different species is always difficult, transcriptome differences found between the two intestinal segments are of the same order than those found when comparing different organs and tissues, either in fish or other animal models. To put it in a proper perspective, the intestinal segment differences found in European sea bass are comparable to those found among heart and red and white skeletal muscle in gilthead sea bream, with more than 3000 DE genes (Calduch-Giner et al, 2014). Also, the level of DE probes among two different tissues in gene expression atlas of human and other model organisms is in the range of 50–90% (Son et al, 2005; Briggs et al, 2011; Freeman et al, 2012; Kapushesky et al, 2012).…”