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Heritability of resistance-related gene expression traits and their correlation with body size of clam Meretrix petechialis

  • Aquaculture and Fisheries
  • Published:
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Abstract

Gene expression variation can be considered as a phenotype, and it plays an important role in both acclimation and adaption. However, genetic variation of gene expression received much less attention than traditional commercial traits in aquaculture. To estimate the genetic variation and heritability of gene transcription in clam Meretrix petechialis, five Vibrio resistance-related genes were selected for gene expression analysis in the digestive gland, and an animal linear model was used to analyze data from quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Among the five genes, BIRC7 showed significant additive genetic variations, the heritability of this gene of 12-month- and 15-month-old clams were 0.84±0.32 and 0.91±0.34, respectively. The heritability of other four genes (Bax, NFIL3, Big-Def, and CTL9) expression were low-to-moderate but not significantly expressed. Additionally, no significant phenotypic and genetic correlations between the BIRC7 transcription trait and body size were detected. This study highlights that certain gene expression variation is heritable and provides a reference for indirect selection of M. petechialis with high Vibrio resistance.

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Data Availability Statement

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study. All data generated and/or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Abbreviations

Bax:

apoptosis regulator Bax

BIRC7:

baculoviral IAP repeat-containing protein 7 isoform X3

Big-Def:

Big defensing

CTL9:

C-type lectin 9

NFIL3:

nuclear factor interleukin-3-regulated protein

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Fengjuan Jiang, Xin Yue, Shujing Zhang, Jiajia Yu, Rui Wang, Baozhong Liu & Hongxia Wang

  2. Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266000, China

    Baozhong Liu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Fengjuan Jiang, Shujing Zhang, Jiajia Yu & Rui Wang

Authors
  1. Fengjuan Jiang
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  2. Xin Yue
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  3. Shujing Zhang
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  4. Jiajia Yu
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  5. Rui Wang
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  6. Baozhong Liu
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  7. Hongxia Wang
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Correspondence to Hongxia Wang.

Additional information

Supported by the China Agriculture Research System (No. CARS-49), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31772845), the Science and Technology Service Network Initiative of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KFJ-STS-ZDTP-049), and the Foundation of Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Exploitation and Preservation of Coastal Bio-Resource (No. J2018001)

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Jiang, F., Yue, X., Zhang, S. et al. Heritability of resistance-related gene expression traits and their correlation with body size of clam Meretrix petechialis. J. Ocean. Limnol. 38, 571–578 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-8326-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-8326-3

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