Abstract
Seahorses have evolved many unique biological traits, including a male brood pouch, the absence of caudal and pelvic fins, and the lack of spleen and gut-associated lymphatic tissue. The mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are known to be involved in various important biological processes including growth, differentiation, immunity, and stress responses. Therefore, we hypothesized that the adaptive evolution and expression of the MAPK gene family in seahorse may differ from those of other teleost species. We identified positive selection sites in the erk2, erk5, jnk1, and p38α MAPK genes of the lined seahorse Hippocampus erectus and tiger-tailed seahorse Hippocampus comes. A novel expression profile of MAPK cascade genes was found in seahorse larvae during the first day after birth based on the RNA-seq data of H. erectus, which reflected vital signs of immune response to its parental immune system. The expression patterns of the four positively selected MAPK genes were analyzed following the bacterial challenge of Vibrio fortis, revealing their upregulation pattern in brood pouch and other immune tissues. This study enriched our knowledge of the evolution of the H. erectus MAPK subfamilies, and could help better understanding the functional role of MAPKs in teleosts.
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Data Availability Statement
Data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Supported by the Shandong Province Science and Technology Support Program for Outstanding Youth of Colleges and Universities (No. 2020KJF007), the Shandong Province Science and Technology Research Program for Colleges and Universities (No. J18KA146), the Yantai Foundation for Development of Science and Technology (Nos. 2020LJRC120, 2019CXJJ040), the Weihai Foundation for Development of Science and Technology (No. 2017GNS10), the Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (No. GML2019ZD0407), and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2019A1515110199)
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Wang, K., Wang, X., Zou, Q. et al. Genome-wide evolution of MAPKs family and their expression in response to bacterial infection in seahorse Hippocampus erectus. J. Ocean. Limnol. 39, 2309–2321 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-020-0332-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-020-0332-y