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Molecular cloning and sexually dimorphic expression of wnt4 in olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus)

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Abstracts

WNT4 (wingless-type MMTV integration site family, member 4) is regarded as a key regulator of gonad differentiation in mammalians. However, the potential role of wnt4 in teleosts during gonad differentiation and development is still unclear. The full-length cDNA sequence of wnt4 in olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) was obtained using RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends) technique. The wnt4 ORF contains 1059 nucleotides, encoding a protein with a signal peptide domain and a wnt family domain. Expression in tissues of adult flounders was analyzed by real-time RT-PCR. The results showed that wnt4 was widely expressed in multiple tissues of flounders, and the expression level was significantly higher in ovary than in testis. Then wnt4 expression pattern was investigated during gonadal differentiation period and at gonadal development stages (I–V). The results showed the expression levels were significantly higher in testis than in ovary during gonadal differentiation. Notably, wnt4 expression had a very significant increase before testis differentiation. At gonad different developmental stages, there was no expression signal at stage I or stage II, and the expression of wnt4 was much stronger in ovary than in testis at stage III and stage IV, followed by a faint expression in stage V in both sexes. Our results imply that cloned wnt4 could be wnt4a. It is a sex-related gene and its expression pattern in gonadal differentiation period of flounder is different from that in mammalians or other teleosts. Flounder wnt4 might play more important role in testis than in ovary during gonadal differentiation.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Chen SL and Dr. Shao ChW from Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, for providing the sequence of flounder wnt4b. This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41276171, 30972270), the National 863 High Technology Research Foundation of China (Nos. 2012AA10A408, 2012AA092203), the National Flatfish Industry System Construction Programme of China (No. nycytx-50) and the National Infrastructure of Fishery Germplasm Resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Nanhai Road, Qingdao, 266071, People’s Republic of China

    Shenda Weng, Feng You, Zhaofei Fan, Lijuan Wang, Zhihao Wu & Yuxia Zou

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10049, People’s Republic of China

    Shenda Weng, Zhaofei Fan & Lijuan Wang

  3. Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, People’s Republic of China

    Feng You, Zhihao Wu & Yuxia Zou

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  1. Shenda Weng
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  2. Feng You
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  3. Zhaofei Fan
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  4. Lijuan Wang
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  5. Zhihao Wu
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Correspondence to Feng You or Yuxia Zou.

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Suppl. Fig. 1

The Schematic representation of the total length and the gonadal differentiation period (TIFF 277 kb)

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Weng, S., You, F., Fan, Z. et al. Molecular cloning and sexually dimorphic expression of wnt4 in olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus). Fish Physiol Biochem 42, 1167–1176 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-016-0206-6

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