Abstract
BackgroundPolypterus senegalus can fully regenerate its pectoral lobed fins, including a complex endoskeleton, with remarkable precision. However, despite the enormous potential of this species for use in medical research, its regeneration mechanisms remain largely unknown.MethodsTo identify the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) during the early stages of lobed fin regeneration in P. senegalus, we performed a differential proteomic analysis using isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) approach based quantitative proteome from the pectoral lobed fins at 3 time points. Furthermore, we validated the changes in protein expression with multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) analysis.ResultsThe experiment yielded a total of 3177 proteins and 15,091 unique peptides including 1006 non-redundant (nr) DEPs. Of these, 592 were upregulated while 349 were downregulated after lobed fin amputation when compared to the original tissue. Bioinformatics analyses showed that the DEPs were mainly associated with Ribosome and RNA transport, metabolic, ECM-receptor interaction, Golgi and endoplasmic reticulum, DNA replication, and Regulation of actin cytoskeleton.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first proteomic research to investigate alterations in protein levels and affected pathways in bichirs’ lobe-fin/limb regeneration. In addition, our study demonstrated a highly dynamic regulation during lobed fin regeneration in P. senegalus. These results not only provide a comprehensive dataset on differentially expressed proteins during the early stages of lobe-fin/limb regeneration but also advance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying lobe-fin/limb regeneration.
Highlights
Polypterus senegalus can fully regenerate its pectoral lobed fins, including a complex endoskeleton, with remarkable precision
We found cancer stem cell-associated proteins, such as mmp2, mmp9, mmp13, mmp14, paxillin, Ras, src and c-myc [21, 22], as well as genes expressed in the immune system, such as Complement component 5 (C5) [23], Complement component 9 (C9) [24], and HMGB1 [25]
In addition to stem cell pathways, we identified wnt/β-Catenin signaling proteins which are reported to play an important role in regulating vertebrate limb regeneration, such as Glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK-3β), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and the β-Catenin [38, 39]
Summary
Polypterus senegalus can fully regenerate its pectoral lobed fins, including a complex endoskeleton, with remarkable precision. Polypterus regenerates its lobed pectoral fins with. Salamanders seem to be the only living tetrapods that can regenerate full limbs [5]. Among vertebrates, the paired lobe-fins/limbs of adult lungfishes and bichirs are able to fully regenerate [4, 6, 7]. It is (2019) 17:6 notable that the lobe-fins/limbs of bichirs include a bony endoskeleton that differs from the dermal exoskeleton of the fins of teleost fishes, bichirs were always classified as Actinopterygii [8]. All three of these species live in water-land transitional environments
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