Gene Expression Profiling of Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) and Crisp Grass Carp.

Deguang Yu,Yun Xia,Wangbao Gong,Zhifei Li,Ermeng Yu,Jun Xie,Haiying Wang,Guangjun Wang,Nan Wei

doi:10.1155/2014/639687

Abstract

Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) is one of the most important freshwater fish that is native to China, and crisp grass carp is a kind of high value-added fishes which have higher muscle firmness. To investigate biological functions and possible signal transduction pathways that address muscle firmness increase of crisp grass carp, microarray analysis of 14,900 transcripts was performed. Compared with grass carp, 127 genes were upregulated and 114 genes were downregulated in crisp grass carp. Gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed 30 GOs of differentially expressed genes in crisp grass carp. And strong correlation with muscle firmness increase of crisp grass carp was found for these genes from differentiation of muscle fibers and deposition of ECM, and also glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway and calcium metabolism may contribute to muscle firmness increase. In addition, a number of genes with unknown functions may be related to muscle firmness, and these genes are still further explored. Overall, these results had been demonstrated to play important roles in clarifying the molecular mechanism of muscle firmness increase in crisp grass carp.

Highlights

Freshwater aquaculture plays a very significant role in global aquaculture production
We show that muscle firmness increase of crisp grass carp is tightly related to the genes of differential expression in the functional groups including differentiation of muscle fibers, deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM), glycolysis/gluconeogenesis pathway, and calcium metabolism
The decrease in the diameter of muscle fibers in crisp grass carp may be related to the downregulated expressions of MSTN and axin and differentially expressed genes involved in diminution of actin filaments

Summary

Introduction

Freshwater aquaculture plays a very significant role in global aquaculture production. Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) is one of the most important freshwater fish that is native to China, and it plays an important role in aquaculture with 4.57 million tons produced in 2011, the highest in fish production worldwide [1]. Muscle firmness is associated with the intrinsic structure and properties of components of the flesh It has been found in many studies that firmness is influenced by muscle fiber density, muscle fiber diameter, and intermyofibrillary spaces and gaps [10,11,12,13]. These factors are determined by changes in the cellularity of skeletal muscle [14, 15]. The changes in cellularity will contribute to changes in the quality of the skeletal muscle, and since this tissue is the part of the fish destined for human consumption, it may have important economic value [16]

Methods

Results

Conclusion