Adipose tissue is critical to the growth, development, and physiological health of animals. Reference genes play an essential role in normalizing the expression of mRNAs. Tissue-specific genes are preferred for their function and expression in specific tissues or cell types. Identification of these genes contributes to understanding the tissue–gene relationship and the etiology and discovery of new tissue-specific targets. Therefore, reference genes and tissue-specific genes in the adipose tissue of Aplodinotus grunniens were identified to explore their function under exogenous starvation (1 d, 2 w, 6 w) and hypothermic stress (18 °C and 10 °C for 2 d and 8 d) in this study. Results suggest that 60SRP was the most stable reference gene in adipose tissue. Meanwhile, eight genes were validated as tissue-specific candidates from the high-throughput sequencing database, while seven of them (ADM2, β2GP1, CAMK1G, CIDE3, FAM213A, HSL, KRT222, and NCEH1) were confirmed in adipose tissue. Additionally, these seven tissue-specific genes were active in response to starvation and hypothermic stress in a time- or temperature-dependent manner. These results demonstrate that adipose-specific genes can be identified using stable internal reference genes, thereby identifying specific important functions under starvation and hypothermic stress, which provides tissue-specific targets for adipose regulation in A. grunniens.
Corbicula fluminea (C. fluminea) is an important freshwater economy shellfish in China, but it often suffers from air exposure during transportation. In this study, we investigated the histological, physiological (mainly including respiratory metabolism, antioxidant capacity, and immune function), and transcriptomic responses of hepatopancreas in C. fluminea to different times of air exposure. At histological level, air exposure caused vacuolation of digestive cells (24–96 h) and enlargement of digestive tubule lumen (6–96 h) in hepatopancreas. At physiological level, the activities of enzymes related to glycolysis (hexokinase and pyruvate kinase) and anaerobic respiration (lactate dehydrogenase) were increased first (6–24 h) of air exposure, then came back to normal level or even decreased. The activity of aerobic respiration-related enzyme (succinic dehydrogenase) began to reduce from 24 h of air exposure. The activities of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and catalase) were enhanced during 6–48 h of air exposure and then returned to control level or even inhibited. The content of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased from 96 h of air exposure. The activities of immune-related enzymes (acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase) increased during 6–48 h, then returned to normal or began to decline. At transcriptome level, 44 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the hepatopancreas were identified after 96-h air exposure. Among these DEGs, 8 were associated with glycolysis, TCA cycle, immune, and antioxidant, and were downregulated after 96-h air exposure. Taken together, these findings illuminated the response of C. fluminea to air exposure at histological, physiological, and transcriptomic levels, which will be beneficial to the aquaculture and transportation of C. fluminea.
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