Transcriptome display during tilapia sex determination and differentiation as revealed by RNA-Seq analysis

Abstract

BackgroundThe factors determining sex in teleosts are diverse. Great efforts have been made to characterize the underlying genetic network in various species. However, only seven master sex-determining genes have been identified in teleosts. While the function of a few genes involved in sex determination and differentiation has been studied, we are far from fully understanding how genes interact to coordinate in this process.ResultsTo enable systematic insights into fish sexual differentiation, we generated a dynamic co-expression network from tilapia gonadal transcriptomes at 5, 20, 30, 40, 90, and 180 dah (days after hatching), plus 45 and 90 dat (days after treatment) and linked gene expression profiles to both development and sexual differentiation. Transcriptomic profiles of female and male gonads at 5 and 20 dah exhibited high similarities except for a small number of genes that were involved in sex determination, while drastic changes were observed from 90 to 180 dah, with a group of differently expressed genes which were involved in gonadal differentiation and gametogenesis. Weighted gene correlation network analysis identified changes in the expression of Borealin, Gtsf1, tesk1, Zar1, Cdn15, and Rpl that were correlated with the expression of genes previously known to be involved in sex differentiation, such as Foxl2, Cyp19a1a, Gsdf, Dmrt1, and Amh.ConclusionsGlobal gonadal gene expression kinetics during sex determination and differentiation have been extensively profiled in tilapia. These findings provide insights into the genetic framework underlying sex determination and sexual differentiation, and expand our current understanding of developmental pathways during teleost sex determination.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-4756-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of Gonads for the Identification of Sex-Related Genes in Giant Freshwater Prawns (Macrobrachium Rosenbergii) Using RNA Sequencing

“…Some evidences indicated that Gtsf1 participated in spermatogenesis, and had significant impact on male germ cells [39,40]. Moreover, in teleost, Gtsf1 as a key candidate gene was involved in sex differentiation [41,42]. Intriguingly, in this study, Gtsf1 displayed sexual dimorphic expression and no expression was detected in testes.…”

High-quality chromosome-level genomes of two tilapia species reveal their evolution of repeat sequences and sex chromosomes

“…The prepared libraries were sequenced on an Illumina Hiseq 2500 platform, and 150bp paired-end reads were generated. Gonad transcriptome data of ONJp at 5, 30 and 180 dah were from the previous studies [50, 91]. The raw RNA-seq reads were mapped against the genomes using HISAT2 (2.1.0) [92].…”

Transcriptome analysis provides insights into differentially expressed genes and long noncoding RNAs involved in sex‐related differences in Amur sturgeon (Acipenser schrenckii)

“…All Unigenes were blasted against five protein databases including Nr (Deng et al, 2006), Uniprot (Apweiler et al, 2004), GO (Ashburner et al, 2000), COG/KOG (Tatusov, Galperin, Natale, & Koonin, 2000), of them were assigned to the biological process of "Reproduction. "…”

“…In the previous study, investigations on sex‐related differences or sex differentiation in fish mainly focused on gonad (Lin, Wang, Zhao, Gao, & Chen, ; Tao et al, ; Wang et al, ). Meanwhile, the transcriptome analysis of testes and ovaries from A. schrenckii had also been reported (Jin et al, ).…”

“…In the previous study, investigations on sex-related differences or sex differentiation in fish mainly focused on gonad (Lin, Wang, Zhao, Gao, & Chen, 2017;Tao et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2017).…”