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Characterization of sexual size dimorphism and sex-biased genes expression profile in the olive flounder

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Abstract

Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is a widespread phenomenon in fish species, including in the olive flounder. Although it is well established that female olive flounders acquire more bone mass than males, the underlying mechanism and timing of this SSD remains controversial. Here, the gene expression profiles of adult male and female olive flounder fish were explored to better understand the SSD mechanisms. Using RNA sequencing, a total of 4784 sex-biased differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the fin with asymptotic growth after maturity were identified, among which growth-related factors were found. Gene ontology and pathway enrichment studies were performed to predict potential SSD-related genes and their functions. According to functional analysis, negative regulation of cell proliferation was significantly enriched in males, and anabolism related genes were highly expressed in females. In addition, pathway analysis using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database revealed that five sexual dimorphism-related candidate genes (bambia, smurf1, dvl2, cul1a, and dvl3) were enriched in osteogenesis-contributing pathways. These results suggest that these five candidate genes may be relevant for skeletal development in olive flounders. Altogether, this study adds new knowledge for a better understanding of SSD-related growth traits in olive flounder, which can be used for enhancing aquaculture productivity with reduced production costs.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Basic Science Research Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2019R1I1A2A01060140, NRF-2018M3A9H3023077), and by the KRIBB Research Initiative Program. And this research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Fisheries Science (NIFS) of the Korea (R2020001).

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Author notes

  1. Jea-Woon Ryu, Jaeeun Jung, Kunhyang Park are contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Disease Research Centers, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), 125 Gwahak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea

    Jea-Woon Ryu, Jaeeun Jung, Sugi Lee, Ilkyu Park & Dae-Soo Kim

  2. Department of Core Facility Management Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB), 125 Gwahak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea

    Kunhyang Park

  3. Department of Bioinformatics, KRIBB School of Bioscience, Korea University of Science and Technology (UST), 217 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea

    Sugi Lee, Ilkyu Park & Dae-Soo Kim

  4. Genetics and Breeding Research Center, National Institute of Fisheries Science (NIFS), Geojesi, 53334, Korea

    Woo-Jin Kim

Authors
  1. Jea-Woon Ryu
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  2. Jaeeun Jung
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  4. Sugi Lee
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  5. Ilkyu Park
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Correspondence to Woo-Jin Kim or Dae-Soo Kim.

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The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Animal experiments were conducted in accordance with the Animal Protection Act of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Republic of Korea and Breeding Research Center of the National Institute of Fisheries Science.

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Ryu, JW., Jung, J., Park, K. et al. Characterization of sexual size dimorphism and sex-biased genes expression profile in the olive flounder. Mol Biol Rep 47, 8317–8324 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05843-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05843-3

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