Scientific Reports (Aug 2023)

Dysregulation of testis mRNA expression levels in hatchery-produced vs wild greater amberjack Seriola dumerili

  • Anna Lavecchia,
  • Caterina Manzari,
  • Chrysovalentinos Pousis,
  • Luigi Mansi,
  • Sharon N. Cox,
  • Constantinos C. Mylonas,
  • Rosa Zupa,
  • Claudio Lo Giudice,
  • Caterina De Virgilio,
  • Ernesto Picardi,
  • Gianluca Ventriglia,
  • Graziano Pesole,
  • Aldo Corriero

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40597-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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Abstract Reproductive dysfunctions have been recently documented in male greater amberjack Seriola dumerili caught from the wild and reared in captivity. In the present study, we compared testis transcriptome in wild fish (WILD), hatchery-produced fish with apparently normal spermatogenesis (Normal Farmed; NormalF) and hatchery-produced fish with evident reproductive dysfunction (Dysfunctional Farmed; DysF). Gene expression analysis identified 2157, 1985 and 74 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in DysF vs WILD, NormalF vs DysF and NormalF vs WILD comparisons, respectively. In DysF, a dysregulation of several interconnected biological processes, including cell assembly, steroidogenesis and apoptosis was found. Gene enrichment of progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation, oocyte meiosis and cell cycle pathways were identified in the DysF vs NormalF comparison. Most of the DEGs involved in the enriched pathways were downregulated in DysF. The comparison of NormalF vs WILD showed that most of the DEGs were downregulated in NormalF, including a gene that encodes for a regulatory protein with a protective role in apoptosis regulation (ptpn6), indicating that spermatogenesis was dysfunctional also in the apparently “normal” hatchery-produced fish. Hence, rearing of male greater amberjack in captivity, from eggs produced by captive breeders, did not prevent the appearance of reproductive dysfunctions, and these dysfunctions involved several biological processes and metabolic pathways.