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Growth Differences of Growth Hormone Transgenic Female and Male Channel Catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, Grown in Earthen Ponds to Sexual Maturation

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Abstract

This study compared growth performance between female and male transgenic channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, containing channel catfish growth hormone full-length cDNA driven by the ocean pout antifreeze protein promoter, opAFP-ccGH, the rainbow trout metallothionein promoter, rtMT-ccGH, or both constructs, and their non-transgenic siblings in earthen ponds at 16 and 48 months of age. Body weight between the transgenic and their non-transgenic siblings differed (P < 0.001) at all ages. Transgenic F2 opAFP-ccGH grew 1.51- to 2.58-, F2 rtMT-ccGH grew 1.44- to 2.99- and F1fish transgenic for both constructs grew 1.36- to 2.92- fold larger than their non-transgenic sibling controls, depending upon age and sex. Body weight of the transgenic GH males was significantly higher than those of the transgenic GH females at 16 months of age (P < 0.001). However, body weight of the transgenic GH females was significantly higher (P < 0.001) compared with those of the transgenic GH males at 48 months of age, but not for the double transgenics (P > 0.05). In the case of non-transgenic GH siblings, males were larger than females at both 16 and 48 months of age (P < 0.001). Sexually dimorphic responses to GH transgenes were the opposite after sexual maturation. When critically low dissolved oxygen levels were encountered, survival of transgenic male and female opAFP-ccGH channel catfish was lower than that of controls (P = 0.004), as well as rtMT-ccGH females (P = 0.11), which is not surprising since the largest fish are most likely to succumb during an oxygen depletion.

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Data Availability

The data sets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

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Funding

This project was supported by the Biotechnology Risk Assessment Grants (BRAG) program, Award Number 2018-33522-28769 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA

    Nermeen Y. Abass, Baofeng Su, Ahmed Alsaqufi, Ahmed Elaswad, Zhenkui Qin, Hanbo Li, Ramjie Odin, Zhi Ye & Rex A. Dunham

  2. Department of Agricultural Botany, Faculty of Agriculture Saba-Basha, Alexandria University, P.O. Box 21531, Alexandria, Egypt

    Nermeen Y. Abass

  3. Department of Aquaculture and Animal Production, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, P.O. Box 31982, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

    Ahmed Alsaqufi

  4. Department of Animal Wealth Development, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, 41522, Egypt

    Ahmed Elaswad

  5. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Marine Genetics and Breeding, College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Zhenkui Qin

  6. Mindanao State University – Maguindanao, Datu Odin Sinsuat, 9601, Maguindanao, Philippines

    Ramjie Odin

  7. Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA

    Zhi Ye

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  1. Nermeen Y. Abass
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Contributions

NA and RD conducted and designed the experiment, wrote the manuscript, and revised the final manuscript. NA identified fishes, checked water quality, collected samples, isolated DNA, administered the PCR analysis, performed the statistical analysis, analyzed the results, prepared tables and figures, and drafted the manuscript. BS and RD assisted in statistical analysis. BS, AA, AE, ZQ, HL, RO, and ZY assisted with execution of the experiment and data collection. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nermeen Y. Abass.

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Ethical Approval

All experimental protocol used in this experiment were approved by the Auburn University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (AU-IACUC) before the experiment was initiated, and followed Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) protocols and guidelines.

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We declare that we have no significant competing financial, professional, or personal interests that might have influenced the performance or presentation of the work described in this manuscript.

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Abass, N.Y., Su, B., Alsaqufi, A. et al. Growth Differences of Growth Hormone Transgenic Female and Male Channel Catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, Grown in Earthen Ponds to Sexual Maturation. Mar Biotechnol 23, 870–880 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-021-10069-w

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