title: Expression analysis of microRNAs related to the skin ulceration syndrome of sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that are involved in many biological processes. To investigate the miRNAs related to skin ulceration syndrome (SUS) of Apostichopus japonicus, small RNA libraries of body wall, intestine, respiratory tree and coelomocytes from healthy and diseased A. japonicus were sequenced on Illumina Hiseq 2000 platform. A total of 247 conserved and 10 novel miRNAs were identified across all libraries. After pair-wise comparisons, 215 miRNAs in body wall, 36 in intestine, 2 in respiratory tree and 38 in coelomocytes showed significant expression differences. Further analyses were conducted on some tissue-specific differentially expressed miRNAs: miR-8 and miR-486-5p in body wall, miR-200-3p, let-7-5p and miR-125 in intestine, miR-278a-3p and bantam in respiratory, miR-10a and miR-184 in coelomocytes. Notably, these miRNAs in some species were reported to function in various physiological or pathological processes associated with immune regulations. Using stem-loop quantitative real time PCR, six representative miRNAs in four tissues were selected to validate the sequencing results. The Pearson's correlation coefficient (R) of the six miRNAs ranged from 0.777 to 0.948, which confirmed the consistency and accuracy between these two approaches. This study provides comprehensive expression and regulation patterns of functional miRNAs in different tissues and gives insights into the tissue-specific immune response mechanisms in SUS-infected A. japonicus.
authors.affiliation: Liaoning Key Lab of Marine Fishery Molecular Biology, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China.
authors.forename: Hongjuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Liaoning Key Lab of Marine Fishery Molecular Biology, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China. Electronic address: zunchunz@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Zunchun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Liaoning Key Lab of Marine Fishery Molecular Biology, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Liaoning Key Lab of Marine Fishery Molecular Biology, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China.
authors.forename: Aifu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Liaoning Key Lab of Marine Fishery Molecular Biology, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China.
authors.forename: Jingwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Liaoning Key Lab of Marine Fishery Molecular Biology, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Liaoning Key Lab of Marine Fishery Molecular Biology, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: Liaoning Key Lab of Marine Fishery Molecular Biology, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China.
authors.forename: Bai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Liaoning Key Lab of Marine Fishery Molecular Biology, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Liaoning Key Lab of Marine Fishery Molecular Biology, Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, PR China.
authors.forename: Bei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015723:Gene Library; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology; D047528:Stichopus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: Differentially expressed miRNAs; Immune regulation; Sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus); Skin ulceration syndrome