Changes in the gene expression profiles of the brains of male European eels (Anguilla anguilla) during sexual maturation

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Churcher, Allison
Data de Publicação: 2014
Outros Autores: Pujolar, Jose M., Milan, Massimo, Hubbard, Peter, Martins, Rute S. T., L. Saraiva, João, Huertas, Mar, Bargelloni, Luca, Patarnello, T., Marino, Ilaria A. M., Zane, Lorenzo, Canario, Adelino V. M.
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/5694
Resumo: Background: The vertebrate brain plays a critical role in the regulation of sexual maturation and reproduction by integrating environmental information with developmental and endocrine status. The European eel Anguilla anguilla is an important species in which to better understand the neuroendocrine factors that control reproduction because it is an endangered species, has a complex life cycle that includes two extreme long distance migrations with both freshwater and seawater stages and because it occupies a key position within the teleost phylogeny. At present, mature eels have never been caught in the wild and little is known about most aspects of reproduction in A. anguilla. The goal of this study was to identify genes that may be involved in sexual maturation in experimentally matured eels. For this, we used microarrays to compare the gene expression profiles of sexually mature to immature males. Results: Using a false discovery rate of 0.05, a total of 1,497 differentially expressed genes were identified. Of this set, 991 were expressed at higher levels in brains (forebrain and midbrain) of mature males while 506 were expressed at lower levels relative to brains of immature males. The set of up-regulated genes includes genes involved in neuroendocrine processes, cell-cell signaling, neurogenesis and development. Interestingly, while genes involved in immune system function were down-regulated in the brains of mature males, changes in the expression levels of several receptors and channels were observed suggesting that some rewiring is occurring in the brain at sexual maturity. Conclusions: This study shows that the brains of eels undergo major changes at the molecular level at sexual maturity that may include re-organization at the cellular level. Here, we have defined a set of genes that help to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling reproduction in eels. Some of these genes have previously described functions while many others have roles that have yet to be characterized in a reproductive context. Since most of the genes examined here have orthologs in other vertebrates, the results of this study will contribute to the body of knowledge concerning reproduction in vertebrates as well as to an improved understanding of eel biology.
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spelling Changes in the gene expression profiles of the brains of male European eels (Anguilla anguilla) during sexual maturationEelMicroarrayNeuroendocrineGene expressionBrainReproductionBackground: The vertebrate brain plays a critical role in the regulation of sexual maturation and reproduction by integrating environmental information with developmental and endocrine status. The European eel Anguilla anguilla is an important species in which to better understand the neuroendocrine factors that control reproduction because it is an endangered species, has a complex life cycle that includes two extreme long distance migrations with both freshwater and seawater stages and because it occupies a key position within the teleost phylogeny. At present, mature eels have never been caught in the wild and little is known about most aspects of reproduction in A. anguilla. The goal of this study was to identify genes that may be involved in sexual maturation in experimentally matured eels. For this, we used microarrays to compare the gene expression profiles of sexually mature to immature males. Results: Using a false discovery rate of 0.05, a total of 1,497 differentially expressed genes were identified. Of this set, 991 were expressed at higher levels in brains (forebrain and midbrain) of mature males while 506 were expressed at lower levels relative to brains of immature males. The set of up-regulated genes includes genes involved in neuroendocrine processes, cell-cell signaling, neurogenesis and development. Interestingly, while genes involved in immune system function were down-regulated in the brains of mature males, changes in the expression levels of several receptors and channels were observed suggesting that some rewiring is occurring in the brain at sexual maturity. Conclusions: This study shows that the brains of eels undergo major changes at the molecular level at sexual maturity that may include re-organization at the cellular level. Here, we have defined a set of genes that help to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling reproduction in eels. Some of these genes have previously described functions while many others have roles that have yet to be characterized in a reproductive context. Since most of the genes examined here have orthologs in other vertebrates, the results of this study will contribute to the body of knowledge concerning reproduction in vertebrates as well as to an improved understanding of eel biology.BioMed CentralSapientiaChurcher, AllisonPujolar, Jose M.Milan, MassimoHubbard, PeterMartins, Rute S. T.L. Saraiva, JoãoHuertas, MarBargelloni, LucaPatarnello, T.Marino, Ilaria A. M.Zane, LorenzoCanario, Adelino V. M.2014-12-31T14:03:32Z2014-09-172014-09-23T14:35:26Z2014-09-17T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articletext/xmlapplication/pdfapplication/pdfapplication/pdfapplication/pdfapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/5694enghttp://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-799info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2024-11-29T10:43:27Zoai:sapientia.ualg.pt:10400.1/5694Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openairemluisa.alvim@gmail.comopendoar:71602024-11-29T10:43:27Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Changes in the gene expression profiles of the brains of male European eels (Anguilla anguilla) during sexual maturation
title Changes in the gene expression profiles of the brains of male European eels (Anguilla anguilla) during sexual maturation
spellingShingle Changes in the gene expression profiles of the brains of male European eels (Anguilla anguilla) during sexual maturation
Churcher, Allison
Eel
Microarray
Neuroendocrine
Gene expression
Brain
Reproduction
title_short Changes in the gene expression profiles of the brains of male European eels (Anguilla anguilla) during sexual maturation
title_full Changes in the gene expression profiles of the brains of male European eels (Anguilla anguilla) during sexual maturation
title_fullStr Changes in the gene expression profiles of the brains of male European eels (Anguilla anguilla) during sexual maturation
title_full_unstemmed Changes in the gene expression profiles of the brains of male European eels (Anguilla anguilla) during sexual maturation
title_sort Changes in the gene expression profiles of the brains of male European eels (Anguilla anguilla) during sexual maturation
author Churcher, Allison
author_facet Churcher, Allison
Pujolar, Jose M.
Milan, Massimo
Hubbard, Peter
Martins, Rute S. T.
L. Saraiva, João
Huertas, Mar
Bargelloni, Luca
Patarnello, T.
Marino, Ilaria A. M.
Zane, Lorenzo
Canario, Adelino V. M.
author_role author
author2 Pujolar, Jose M.
Milan, Massimo
Hubbard, Peter
Martins, Rute S. T.
L. Saraiva, João
Huertas, Mar
Bargelloni, Luca
Patarnello, T.
Marino, Ilaria A. M.
Zane, Lorenzo
Canario, Adelino V. M.
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Sapientia
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Churcher, Allison
Pujolar, Jose M.
Milan, Massimo
Hubbard, Peter
Martins, Rute S. T.
L. Saraiva, João
Huertas, Mar
Bargelloni, Luca
Patarnello, T.
Marino, Ilaria A. M.
Zane, Lorenzo
Canario, Adelino V. M.
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv Eel
Microarray
Neuroendocrine
Gene expression
Brain
Reproduction
topic Eel
Microarray
Neuroendocrine
Gene expression
Brain
Reproduction
description Background: The vertebrate brain plays a critical role in the regulation of sexual maturation and reproduction by integrating environmental information with developmental and endocrine status. The European eel Anguilla anguilla is an important species in which to better understand the neuroendocrine factors that control reproduction because it is an endangered species, has a complex life cycle that includes two extreme long distance migrations with both freshwater and seawater stages and because it occupies a key position within the teleost phylogeny. At present, mature eels have never been caught in the wild and little is known about most aspects of reproduction in A. anguilla. The goal of this study was to identify genes that may be involved in sexual maturation in experimentally matured eels. For this, we used microarrays to compare the gene expression profiles of sexually mature to immature males. Results: Using a false discovery rate of 0.05, a total of 1,497 differentially expressed genes were identified. Of this set, 991 were expressed at higher levels in brains (forebrain and midbrain) of mature males while 506 were expressed at lower levels relative to brains of immature males. The set of up-regulated genes includes genes involved in neuroendocrine processes, cell-cell signaling, neurogenesis and development. Interestingly, while genes involved in immune system function were down-regulated in the brains of mature males, changes in the expression levels of several receptors and channels were observed suggesting that some rewiring is occurring in the brain at sexual maturity. Conclusions: This study shows that the brains of eels undergo major changes at the molecular level at sexual maturity that may include re-organization at the cellular level. Here, we have defined a set of genes that help to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling reproduction in eels. Some of these genes have previously described functions while many others have roles that have yet to be characterized in a reproductive context. Since most of the genes examined here have orthologs in other vertebrates, the results of this study will contribute to the body of knowledge concerning reproduction in vertebrates as well as to an improved understanding of eel biology.
publishDate 2014
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2014-12-31T14:03:32Z
2014-09-17
2014-09-23T14:35:26Z
2014-09-17T00:00:00Z
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
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status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/5694
url http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/5694
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-15-799
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv BioMed Central
publisher.none.fl_str_mv BioMed Central
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
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reponame_str Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
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repository.name.fl_str_mv Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação
repository.mail.fl_str_mv mluisa.alvim@gmail.com
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