Targeted mutant models are common in mechanistic toxicology experiments investigating the absorption, metabolism, distribution, or elimination (ADME) of chemicals from individuals. Key models include those for xenosensing transcription factors and cytochrome P450s (CYP). Here we investigated changes in transcript levels, protein expression, and steroid hydroxylation of several xenobiotic detoxifying CYPs in constitutive androstane receptor (CAR)-null and two CYP-null mouse models that have subfamily members regulated by CAR; the Cyp3a-null and a newly described Cyp2b9/10/13-null mouse model. Compensatory changes in CYP expression that occur in these models may also occur in polymorphic humans, or may complicate interpretation of ADME studies performed using these models. The loss of CAR causes significant changes in several CYPs probably due to loss of CAR-mediated constitutive regulation of these CYPs. Expression and activity changes include significant repression of Cyp2a and Cyp2b members with corresponding drops in 6α- and 16β-testosterone hydroxylase activity. Further, the ratio of 6α-/15α-hydroxylase activity, a biomarker of sexual dimorphism in the liver, indicates masculinization of female CAR-null mice, suggesting a role for CAR in the regulation of sexually dimorphic liver CYP profiles. The loss of Cyp3a causes fewer changes than CAR. Nevertheless, there are compensatory changes including gender-specific increases in Cyp2a and Cyp2b. Cyp2a and Cyp2b were down-regulated in CAR-null mice, suggesting activation of CAR and potentially PXR following loss of the Cyp3a members. However, the loss of Cyp2b causes few changes in hepatic CYP transcript levels and almost no significant compensatory changes in protein expression or activity with the possible exception of 6α-hydroxylase activity. This lack of a compensatory response in the Cyp2b9/10/13-null mice is probably due to low CYP2B hepatic expression, especially in male mice. Overall, compensatory and regulatory CYP changes followed the order CAR-null > Cyp3a-null > Cyp2b-null mice.

We report RNA-Seq results from skin of X. maculatus Jp 163 B after exposure to various doses of “cool white” fluorescent light (FL). We show that FL exposure incites a genetic transcriptional response in skin nearly as great as observed for UVB exposure; however, the gene sets modulated due to exposure to the two light sources are quite different. Known light responsive genes involved in maintaining circadian cycling (e.g., clock, cry2a, cry1b, per1b, per2, per3, arntl1a, etc.) exhibited expected shifts in transcriptional expression upon FL exposure. Exposure to FL also resulted in down-regulated transcription of many genes involved with cell cycle progression (e.g., cdc20, cdc45, cdca7b, plk1, cdk1, ccnb-3, cdca7a, etc.) and chromosome segregation (e.g., cenpe, cenpf, cenpi, cenpk, cenpo, cenpp, and cenpu; cep70; knstrm, kntc, mcm2, mcm5; smc2, etc.). In addition, several DNA replication and recombination repair genes (e.g., pola1, pole, rec52, rad54l, rpa1, parpbp, etc.) exhibit reduced expression in FL exposed X. maculatus skin. Some genes down modulated by FL are known to be associated with DNA repair and human diseases (e.g., atm2, brip1, fanc1, fancl, xrcc4, etc.). The overall suppression of genes involved with mitotic progression in the skin of adult fish is consistent with entry into the light phase of the circadian cycle. Current efforts are aimed at determining specific wavelengths that may lead to differential expression among the many genes affected by fluorescent light exposure.

BackgroundXiphophorus fishes are represented by 26 live-bearing species of tropical fish that express many attributes (e.g., viviparity, genetic and phenotypic variation, ecological adaptation, varied sexual developmental mechanisms, ability to produce fertile interspecies hybrids) that have made attractive research models for over 85 years. Use of various interspecies hybrids to investigate the genetics underlying spontaneous and induced tumorigenesis has resulted in the development and maintenance of pedigreed Xiphophorus lines specifically bred for research. The recent availability of the X. maculatus reference genome assembly now provides unprecedented opportunities for novel and exciting comparative research studies among Xiphophorus species.ResultsWe present sequencing, assembly and annotation of two new genomes representing Xiphophorus couchianus and Xiphophorus hellerii. The final X. couchianus and X. hellerii assemblies have total sizes of 708 Mb and 734 Mb and correspond to 98 % and 102 % of the X. maculatus Jp 163 A genome size, respectively. The rates of single nucleotide change range from 1 per 52 bp to 1 per 69 bp among the three genomes and the impact of putatively damaging variants are presented. In addition, a survey of transposable elements allowed us to deduce an ancestral TE landscape, uncovered potential active TEs and document a recent burst of TEs during evolution of this genus.ConclusionsTwo new Xiphophorus genomes and their corresponding transcriptomes were efficiently assembled, the former using a novel guided assembly approach. Three assembled genome sequences within this single vertebrate order of new world live-bearing fishes will accelerate our understanding of relationship between environmental adaptation and genome evolution. In addition, these genome resources provide capability to determine allele specific gene regulation among interspecies hybrids produced by crossing any of the three species that are known to produce progeny predisposed to tumor development.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-2361-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Among the many Xiphophorus interspecies hybrid tumor models are those that exhibit ultraviolet light (UVB) induced melanoma. In previous studies, assessment of UVB induced DNA damage and nucleotide excision DNA repair has been performed in parental lines and interspecies hybrids. Species and hybrid specific differences in the levels of DNA damage induced and the dark repair rates for cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) and 6-4 pyrimidine pyrimidine photoproducts (6-4PPs) have been reported. However, UVB induced DNA lesions in Xiphophorus fishes are thought to primarily be repaired via light dependent CPD and 6-4PP specific photolyases. Photolyases are of evolutionary interest since they are ancient and presumably function solely to ameliorate the deleterious effects of UVB exposure. Herein, we report results from detailed studies of CPD and 6-4PP photolyase gene expression within several Xiphophorus tissues. We determined photolyase gene expression patterns before and after exposure to fluorescent light in X. maculatus, X. couchianus, and for F1 interspecies hybrids produced from crossing these two parental lines (×. maculatus Jp 163 B × X. couchianus). We present novel results showing these two photolyase genes exhibit species, tissue, and hybrid-specific differences in basal and light induced gene expression.

In both Xiphophorus fishes and humans, males are reported to have a higher incidence of melanoma than females. To better understand sex specific differences in the molecular genetic response to UVB, we performed RNA-Seq experiments in skin of female and male Xiphophorus maculatus Jp 163 B following UVB doses of 8 or 16 kJ/m2 exposure. Male X. maculatus differentially express a significantly larger number of transcripts following exposure to 16 kJ/m2 UVB (1,293 genes) compared to 8 kJ/m2 UVB (324 genes). Female skin showed differential gene expression in a larger number of transcripts following 8 kJ/m2 UVB (765) than did males; however, both females and males showed similar numbers of differentially expressed genes at 16 kJ/m2 UVB (1,167 and1,293, respectively). Although most modulated transcripts after UVB exposure represented the same dominant pathways in both females and males (e.g., DNA repair, circadian rhythm, and fatty acid biosynthesis), we identified genes in several pathways that exhibited opposite modulation in female vs. male skin (e.g., synaptic development, cell differentiation, wound healing, and glucose metabolism). The oppositely modulated genes appear related through uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) that is involved with regulation of fatty acid oxidation and serves to balance glucose and lipid metabolism. Overall, these results identify gender specific differences in UVB induced genetic profiles in the skin of females and males and show female and male X. maculatus respond to UVB differently through pathways involved in reactive oxygen species, wound healing, and energy homeostasis.

Xiphophorus fishes represent a model often utilized to study UVB induced tumorigenesis. Recently, varied genetic responses to UVB exposure has been documented in the skin of female and male Xiphophorus, as have differences in UVB response in the skin of different parental species and for interspecies hybrids produced from crossing them. Additionally, it has been shown that exposure to “cool white” fluorescent light induces a shift in the genetic profiles of Xiphophorus skin that is nearly as robust as the UVB response, but involves a fundamentally different set of genes. Given these results and the use of Xiphophorus interspecies hybrids as an experimental model for UVB inducible melanoma, it is of interest to characterize genes that may be transcriptionally modulated in a wavelength specific manner. The global molecular genetic response of skin upon exposure of the intact animal to specific wavelengths of light has not been investigated. Herein, we report results of RNA-Seq experiments from the skin of male Xiphophorus maculatus Jp 163 B following exposure to varied 50 nm wavelengths of light ranging from 300–600 nm. We identify two specific wavelength regions, 350–400 nm (88 genes) and 500–550 nm (276 genes) that exhibit transcriptional modulation of a significantly greater number of transcripts than any of the other 50 nm regions in the 300–600 nm range. Observed functional sets of genes modulated within these two transcriptionally active light regions suggest different mechanisms of gene modulation.

Development of spontaneous melanoma in Xiphophorus interspecies backcross hybrid progeny, (X. hellerii × [X. maculatus Jp 163 A × X. hellerii]) is due to Mendelian segregation of a oncogene (xmrk) and a molecularly uncharacterized locus, called R(Diff), on LG5. R(Diff) is thought to suppresses the activity of xmrk in healthy X. maculatus Jp 163 A parental species that rarely develop melanoma. To better understand the molecular genetics of R(Diff), we utilized RNA-Seq to study allele-specific gene expression of spontaneous melanoma tumors and corresponding normal skin samples derived from 15 first generation backcross (BC1) hybrids and 13 fifth generation (BC5) hybrids. Allele-specific expression was determined for all genes and assigned to parental allele inheritance for each backcross hybrid individual. Results showed that genes residing in a 5.81 Mbp region on LG5 were exclusively expressed from the X. hellerii alleles in tumor-bearing BC1 hybrids. This observation indicates this region is consistently homozygous for X. hellerii alleles in tumor bearing animals, and therefore defines this region to be the R(Diff) locus. The R(Diff) locus harbors 164 gene models and includes the previously characterized R(Diff) candidate, cdkn2x. Twenty one genes in the R(Diff) region show differential expression in the tumor samples compared to normal skin tissue. These results further characterize the R(Diff) locus and suggest tumor suppression may require a multigenic region rather than a single gene variant. Differences in gene expression between tumor and normal skin tissue in this region may indicate interactions among several genes are required for backcross hybrid melanoma development.

Differences in light sources are common in animal facilities and potentially can impact experimental results. Here, the potential impact of lighting differences on skin transcriptomes has been tested in three aquatic animal models commonly utilized in biomedical research, (Xiphophorus maculatus (platyfish), Oryzias latipes (medaka) and Danio rerio (zebrafish). Analysis of replicate comparative RNA-Seq data showed the transcriptional response to commonly utilized 4100K or "cool white" fluorescent light (FL) is much greater in platyfish and medaka than in zebrafish. FL induces genes associated with inflammatory and immune responses in both medaka and zebrafish; however, the platyfish exhibit suppression of genes involved with immune/inflammation, as well as genes associated with cell cycle progression. Furthermore, comparative analyses of gene expression data from platyfish UVB exposures, with medaka and zebrafish after exposure to 4100K FL, show comparable effects on the same stress pathways. We suggest the response to light is conserved, but that long-term adaptation to species specific environmental niches has resulted in a shifting of the wavelengths required to incite similar "genetic" responses in skin. We forward the hypothesis that the "genetic perception" of light may have evolved differently than ocular perception and suggest that light type (i.e., wavelengths emitted) is an important parameter to consider in experimental design.