title: Transcriptome analysis provides insights into hepatic responses to moderate heat stress in the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).
abstract: The rainbow trout is an economically important fish in the world. The limited stress tolerance of this species to high summer-like temperatures usually leads to mass mortality and great economic loss. However, there is limited information on the mechanisms underlying moderate heat responses in the liver of the rainbow trout. Here, we performed transcriptome profiling of rainbow trout liver under moderate heat stress by using the Hiseq™ 4000 sequencing platform. More than 277 million clean reads were obtained from 6 libraries and aligned against the rainbow trout genome. A total of 128 unique transcripts were differentially expressed in the liver under heat-stress and control conditions, many heat shock protein genes for thermoregulation and some novel genes involved in heat stress were identified. Nine of the differently expressed genes were further validated by qRT-PCR. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses revealed that several pathways, including those for protein metabolism, energy metabolism, and immune system, were influenced by heat stress. Moreover, an important protein-processing pathway in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) was identified, and the key role of ER-associated degradation and function of calpain as an upstream regulator of apoptosis were confirmed under heat stress. The results of this study provide a comprehensive overview of heat stress-induced transcriptional patterns in rainbow trout liver and would be particularly useful for further studies on the molecular mechanisms underlying responses to heat stress in this species.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China; College of Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Yongjuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Jinqiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China. Electronic address: liuz@gsau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Yanjing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Binpeng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Yongjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Yujun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
authors.forename: Jianfu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D060746:Endoplasmic Reticulum-Associated Degradation; D029941:Fish Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018869:Heat-Shock Response / Q000235:genetics*; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D059467:Transcriptome; D014337:Trout / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029941:Fish Proteins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins
keywords: Heat stress; RNA-seq; Rainbow trout; Transcriptome