Identification and Characterization of Sex-Biased miRNAs in the Golden Pompano (<i>Trachinotus blochii</i>)
Liping Shi,
Feibiao Song,
Kaixi Zhang,
Yue Gu,
Jinghan Hu,
Junlong Sun,
Zhongwei Wang,
Li Zhou,
Jian Luo
Affiliations
Liping Shi
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan Aquaculture Breeding Engineering Research Center, Hainan Academician Team Innovation Center, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
Feibiao Song
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan Aquaculture Breeding Engineering Research Center, Hainan Academician Team Innovation Center, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
Kaixi Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan Aquaculture Breeding Engineering Research Center, Hainan Academician Team Innovation Center, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
Yue Gu
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan Aquaculture Breeding Engineering Research Center, Hainan Academician Team Innovation Center, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
Jinghan Hu
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan Aquaculture Breeding Engineering Research Center, Hainan Academician Team Innovation Center, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
Junlong Sun
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan Aquaculture Breeding Engineering Research Center, Hainan Academician Team Innovation Center, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
Zhongwei Wang
State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China
Li Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China
Jian Luo
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan Aquaculture Breeding Engineering Research Center, Hainan Academician Team Innovation Center, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
The golden pompano (Trachinotus blochii) is a marine fish of considerable commercial importance in China. It shows notable sexual size dimorphism; the growth rate of females is faster than that of males. Therefore, sex-biased research is of great importance in T. blochii breeding. However, there have been few studies on sex differentiation and mechanisms underlying sex determination in T. blochii. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial roles in sex differentiation and determination in animals. However, limited miRNA data are available on fish. In this study, two small RNA libraries prepared from the gonads of T. blochii were constructed and sequenced. The RNA-seq analysis yielded 1366 known and 69 novel miRNAs with 289 significantly differentially expressed miRNAs (p gata4, foxo3, wt1, and sf1 genes were found to be regulated by bta-miR-2898; esr2 and foxo3 by novel_176, and ar by oar-let-7b. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis of selected mRNAs and miRNAs validated the integrated analysis. This study established a set of sex-biased miRNAs that are potential regulatory factors in gonadal development in T. blochii. These results provide new insight into the function of miRNAs in sex differentiation and determination in T. blochii and highlight some key miRNAs for future studies.
