title: Transcriptome comparison reveals a genetic network regulating the lower temperature limit in fish.
abstract: Transcriptional plasticity is a major driver of phenotypic differences between species. The lower temperature limit (LTL), namely the lower end of survival temperature, is an important trait delimiting the geographical distribution of a species, however, the genetic mechanisms are poorly understood. We investigated the inter-species transcriptional diversification in cold responses between zebrafish Danio rerio and tilapia Oreochromis niloticus, which were reared at a common temperature (28 °C) but have distinct LTLs. We identified significant expressional divergence between the two species in the orthologous genes from gills when the temperature cooled to the LTL of tilapia (8 °C). Five KEGG pathways were found sequentially over-represented in the zebrafish/tilapia divergently expressed genes in the duration (12 hour) of 8 °C exposure, forming a signaling cascade from metabolic regulation to apoptosis via FoxO signaling. Consistently, we found differential progression of apoptosis in the gills of the two species in which zebrafish manifested a delayed and milder apoptotic phenotype than tilapia, corresponding with a lower LTL of zebrafish. We identified diverged expression in 25 apoptosis-related transcription factors between the two species which forms an interacting network with diverged factors involving the FoxO signaling and metabolic regulation. We propose a genetic network which regulates LTL in fishes.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Mingli
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Yimeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Jinfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Hongbo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Shouwen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Dongsheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Bingshe
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Sustainable Exploitation of Oceanic Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Education, College of Marine Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Qianghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aquacultural Resources and Utilization, Ministry of Education, College of Fisheries and Life Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, 201306, China.
authors.forename: Liangbiao
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D003080:Cold Temperature; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways / Q000235:genetics; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D017210:Tilapia / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology