Project description:Background: Food supply is a major factor influencing growth rates in animals. This has important implications for both natural and farmed fish populations, since food restriction may difficult reproduction. However, a study on the effects of food supply on the development of juvenile gonads has never been transcriptionally described in fish. Methods and Findings: This study investigated the consequences of growth on gonadal transcriptome of European sea bass in: 1) 4-month-old sexually undifferentiated fish, comparing the gonads of fish with the highest vs. the lowest growth, to explore a possible link between transcriptome and future sex, and 2) testis from 11-month-old juveniles where growth had been manipulated through changes in food supply. The four groups used were: i) sustained fast growth, ii) sustained slow growth, iii) accelerated growth, iv) decelerated growth. The transcriptome of undifferentiated gonads was not drastically affected by initial natural differences in growth. Further, changes in the expression of genes associated with protein turnover were seen, favoring catabolism in slow-growing fish and anabolism in fast-growing fish. Moreover, while fast-growing fish took energy from glucose, as deduced from the pathways affected and the analysis of protein-protein interactions examined, in slow-growing fish lipid metabolism and gluconeogenesis was favored. Interestingly, the highest transcriptomic differences were found when forcing initially fast-growing fish to decelerate their growth, while accelerating growth of initially slow-growing fish resulted in full transcriptomic convergence with sustained fast-growing fish. Conclusions: Food availability during sex differentiation shapes the juvenile testis transcriptome, as evidenced by adaptations to different energy balances. Remarkably, this occurs in absence of major histological changes in the testis. Thus, fish are able to recover transcriptionally their testes if they are provided with enough food supply during sex differentiation; however, an initial fast growth does not represent any advantage in terms of transcriptional fitness if later food becomes scarce.
Project description:This study explored the feasibility of using fish skin bandages as a therapeutic option for third-degree skin burns. Following the California wildfires, clinical observations of animals with third-degree skin burns demonstrated increased comfort levels and reduced pain when treated with tilapia fish skin. Proteomic analysis of the fish skin revealed the presence of antimicrobial peptides. In combination with histological and other data, these results suggest that fish skin can serve as an innovative and cost-effective therapeutic alternative for burn victims to facilitate vascularization and reduce bacterial infection.
Project description:The omega-3 long chain poly-unsaturated fatty acid (n-3 LCPUFA) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) plays a central role in fetal and neonatal development in humans, in particular the development of the brain and nervous system, and this has led to numerous studies focussed on determining the effect of exposure to an increased supply of DHA on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of treatment with a DHA-enriched fish-oil emulsion on fatty acid composition, proliferation rate and gene expression in human placental HTR8/SVneo cells in vitro.
Project description:The skin mucus of gilthead sea bream was mapped by 1-DE followed by liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry using a quadrupole time-of-flight mass analyzer. More than 2000 proteins were identified with a protein score filter of 30. The identified proteins were represented in 418 canonical pathways of the Ingenuity Pathway software. After filtering by canonical pathway overlapping, the retained proteins were clustered in three groups. The mitochondrial cluster contained 59 proteins related to oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial dysfunction. The second cluster contained 79 proteins related to antigen presentation and protein ubiquitination pathways. The third cluster contained 257 proteins where proteins related to protein synthesis, cellular assembly, and epithelial integrity were over-represented. The latter group also included acute phase response signaling. In parallel, 2-DE methodology identified six proteins spots of different protein abundance when comparing unstressed fish with chronically stressed fish in an experimental model that mimicked daily farming activities. The major changes were associated with a higher abundance of cytokeratin 8 in the skin mucus proteome of stressed fish, which was confirmed by immunoblotting. Overall, these results indicate that skin mucus is a reliable tissue for alternative or complementary stress phenotyping in fish farming.
Project description:Monoterpene indole alkaloids (MIAs) are a diverse family of complex plant secondary metabolites with many medicinal properties, including the essential anti-cancer therapeutics vinblastine and vincristine. As MIAs are difficult to chemically synthesize, the world’s supply chain for vinblastine relies on low-yielding extractions of precursors vindoline and catharanthine from the plant Catharanthus roseus, followed by chemical coupling and reduction to form vinblastine. Here, we demonstrate de novo microbial biosynthesis of vindoline and catharanthine from renewable feedstocks such as simple sugar and amino acids using highly engineered yeast. The study showcases the longest biosynthetic pathway refactored into a microbial cell factory to date, including 29 enzymatic steps from the yeast native metabolite geranyl pyrophosphate to catharanthine and vindoline. We made 44 genetic edits to yeast that include expression of 35 heterologous genes from plants as well as deletions, knock-downs, and overexpression of 10 yeast genes or variants thereof to improve the precursor supply. Finally, we demonstrate one-step in vitro vinblastine production using chemical coupling and reduction of vindoline and catharanthine. Not only is the yeast a scalable platform for production of vinblastine, it is also a platform for production of more than 2,000 different natural and new-to-nature MIAs.
Project description:The use of high levels of marine fish oil in aquafeeds is a non-sustainable practice. However, more sustainable oils sources from terrestrial plants do not contain long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA). Consequently, feeds based on conventional vegetable oils reduce n-3 LC-PUFA levels in farmed fish. Therefore, the aquaculture industry desperately requires new, sustainable oil sources that contain high levels of n-3 LC-PUFA in order to supply the increasing demand for fish and seafood while maintaining the high nutritional quality of the farmed product. One approach to the renewable supply of n-3 LC-PUFA is metabolic engineering oilseed crops with the capacity to synthesize these essential fatty acids in seeds. In the present study, the oilseed Camelina sativa has been transformed with algal genes encoding the n-3 biosynthetic pathway and expression restricted to the seeds via seed-specific promoters to produce an oil containing > 20% eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). This oil was investigated as a replacement for marine fish oil in feeds for post-smolt Atlantic salmon. In addition, this study with EPA-rich oil will contribute to our understanding of the biochemical and molecular mechanisms involved in the control and regulation of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) production from EPA, and will thus better inform our understanding of this key part of the LC-PUFA biosynthetic pathway.