Project description:Cichlids fishes exhibit extensive phenotypic diversification and speciation. In this study we integrate transcriptomic and proteomic signatures from two cichlids species, identify novel open reading frames (nORFs) and perform evolutionary analysis on these nORF regions. We embark comparative transrcriptomics and proteogenomic analysis of two metabolically active tissues, the testes and liver, of two cichlid species Oreochromis niloticus (Nile tilapia, ON) and Pundamilia nyererei (Makobe Island, PN). Our results suggest that the time scale of speciation of the two species can be better explained by the evolutionary divergence of these nORF genomic regions.
Project description:Commercial production of tilapia relies on monosex cultures of males, which so far proved difficult to maintain in large scale production facilities. Thus, a better understanding of the genetic architecture of the complex trait of sex determination in tilapia is needed.We aimed to detect genes that were differentially expressed by gender at early embryonic development. Artificial fertilization of O. niloticus females with either sex-reversed males (ΔXX) or genetically-modified YY 'supermales' resulted in all-female and all-male embryos, respectively. Pools of all-female and all-male embryos at 2, 5 and 9 days post fertilization were used for custom Agilent eArray. 56 pool samples of Nile tilapia full siblings groups (female or male) at day 2, 5 or 9 post fertilization were subjected to total RNA extraction from whole embryo tissues and hybridized to the custom Agilent array. Each sample was yielded from different cross of artificial fertilization: six dams X five sires. The resulting gender were known based on the sire, sex-reversed males (ΔXX) or genetically-modified YY 'supermales' resulted in all-female and all-male embryos, respectively.
Project description:The imbalance of intestinal flora can affect the immune function and structural integrity of the intestinal barrier, leading to the colonization and reproduction of opportunistic pathogenic bacteria in the intestine to become the dominant flora, eventually inducing enteritis. This study aimed to investigate whether fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) could improve the gut barrier in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). The experiment involved administering normal saline (NS group) and fecal microbiota (FMT group) (from the negative control group (C group)) to tilapia that had been treated with oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OTC) (M group) by gavage. A total of 300 male tilapia (mean body weight 596.65 ± 47.18 g) were used, with 180 of them being fed OTC (120 mg/kg body weight/day) for 7 days to induce intestinal oxidative stress, while the rest served as the control group. After confirmation of mild chronic enteritis, the tilapia were treated in different ways.
Project description:The elucidation of microRNA function and evolution depends on the identification and characterization of miRNA repertoire of strategic organisms, as the fast evolving cichlid fishes. Using RNA-seq and comparative genomics we carried out an in-depth report of miRNAs in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Our results enlarge vertebrate miRNAs collection and reveal a notable differential expression of miRNAs arms and isoforms influenced by sex and developmental life stage, providing a better picture of the evolutionary and spatiotemporal dynamics of miRNAs.
Project description:Commercial production of tilapia relies on monosex cultures of males, which so far proved difficult to maintain in large scale production facilities. Thus, a better understanding of the genetic architecture of the complex trait of sex determination in tilapia is needed.We aimed to detect genes that were differentially expressed by gender at early embryonic development. Artificial fertilization of O. niloticus females with either sex-reversed males (ΔXX) or genetically-modified YY 'supermales' resulted in all-female and all-male embryos, respectively. Pools of all-female and all-male embryos at 2, 5 and 9 days post fertilization were used for custom Agilent eArray.
Project description:Dissolved oxygen (DO) in cultured water is one of the important environment factor in fish farming. Hypoxic environment affects fish growth, metabolism and immune system. Multi-omics integrative analysis helps to uncover the underlying molecular mechanisms. In this study, the 96h median lethal hypoxia (96h-LH50) for Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT, Oreochromis niloticus) was first analyzed by linear interpolation. We built control (5mg/l) and hypoxic stress (96h-LH50) groups, and extracted the liver tissues for high-throughput transcriptome and metabolome sequencing. The identification and quantification results of metabolites showed that a total of 19656 metabolites had been obtained, of which 10390 were annotated. There were 3028 differentially expressed (DE) metabolites, of which 1596 metabolites were up-regulated and 1432 metabolites were down-regulated. We obtained 2375 DE genes, of which 1201 genes were up-regulated and 1174 genes were down-regulated. We verified 8 DE genes by quantitative real-time PCR. Our finding reveals the changes in metabolites and genes expression of GIFT and facilitate the understanding of regulatory pathways under hypoxic stress, which will help reduce the damage caused by hypoxic stress during culture.