Project description:The Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) is anadromous fish distributed in Yangtze River and East China Sea. In this study, we reported cleft-palate Chinese sturgeons in artificial population for the first time. In order to explore the genetic basis of palate malformation in A. sinensis, Illumina RNA-seq technology was used to analyze the transcriptome data of normal and cleft-palate individuals in farmed Chinese sturgeons. Raw reads were obtained and assembled into 808,612 unigenes, with an average length of 509.33 bp and an N50 of 574 bp. Sequence similarity analyses against four public databases (Nr, Uniprot, KEGG and COGs) found 158,642 unigenes that can be annotated. GABAergic synapse and TGF-β signal pathway were the most two enriched pathways with high Richfactor in the analyses of different expressed genes. In these two signal pathways, six genes (GABRA4, GS, GNS, S6K, PITX2, and BMP8) were found as cleft-palate genes in Chinese sturgeon. These findings contribute to our understanding of the genetic basis of cleft palate in sturgeon, while simultaneously adding to our knowledge about craniofacial development.
Project description:The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) is one of the most important ecological breeding species with distinct characteristics and is cultured in many locations throughout China. In the present study, the transcriptome of A. davidianus spleen tissue, that had challenged with Citrobacter freundii, was analyzed using Illumina sequencing technology. The result was compared to a heathy control group. After assembly and annotation, 128,540 transcripts were generated with a median length of 349 bp. Comparative expression analysis indicated 1,995 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), 812 of which were up-regulated and 1,183 were down-regulated. Furthermore, DEGs were classified into three gene ontology categories, 535 of which were annotated to 237 KEGG pathways. Finally, six immune-related DEGs involved in the immune-related pathways were randomly selected for scrutinization. This work provides valuable data for an improved understanding the defense mechanisms of A. davidianus against bacterial pathogens at the transcriptional level.