Immune- and stress-related transcriptomic responses of Solea senegalensis stimulated with lipopolysaccharide and copper sulphate using heterologous cDNA microarrays

Abstract

The sole, Solea senegalensis, is a common flatfish of Atlantic and Mediterranean waters with a high potential for aquaculture. However, its cultivation is hampered by high sensitivity to different stresses and several infectious diseases. Improving protection from pathogens and stressors is thus a key step in reaching a standardized production. Fish were exposed to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a mimetic of bacterial infections, and copper sulphate (CuSO(4)), used in aquaculture to control algae and outbreaks of infectious diseases. We employed a European flounder cDNA microarray to determine the transcriptomic responses of Senegalese sole to these exposures. Microarray analyses showed that many genes were altered in expression following both LPS and copper treatments in comparison to vehicle controls. Gene ontology analysis highlighted copper-specific induction of genes related to cellular adhesion and cell signalling, LPS-specific induction of genes related to the immune response, and a common induction of genes related to unfolded protein binding, intracellular transport/secretion and proteasome. Additionally transcripts for glutathione-S-transferases were down-regulated by LPS, and those for digestive enzymes were down-regulated by both treatments. We selected nine changing genes for absolute quantification of transcript copy numbers by real-time RT-PCR to validate microarray differential expression and to assess inter-individual variability in individual fishes. The quantitative RT-PCR data correlated highly with the microarray results. Overall, data reported provide novel insights into the molecular pathways that could mediate the immune and heavy metal stress responses in Senegalese sole and thus might have biotechnological applications in the culture of this important fish species.

Gene expression endpoints following chronic waterborne copper exposure in a genomic model organism, the zebrafish, Danio rerio

“…Although phenotypic responses may not be identifiable, we know that genome-wide changes in expression are commonplace with environmental stressors (16,24), and waterborne Cu exposure is no different (41). Congruent with current microarray experiments (i.e., Refs.…”

Gene expression analyses of hepatocellular adenoma and hepatocellular carcinoma from the marine flatfish Limanda limanda

“…We have used this array to investigate cross-species hybridization efficiency in different flatfish species (plaice Pleuronectes platessa and sole Solea solea) (Cohen et al 2007) and experimentally determined 79% intra-family hybridization efficiency (percentage of non-differentially, or up-regulated, transcripts). In addition, we have successfully employed the flounder array for transcriptomics in Senegalese sole S. senegalensis, a species that is considerably more evolutionarily distant from European flounder than the dab (Osuna-Jiménez et al 2009). …”

Transcriptomic analyses in a benthic fish exposed to contaminated estuarine sediments through laboratory and in situ bioassays

“…Riba 2004;Costa et al 2009a, b;Oliva et al 2010). In addition, some successful attempts using ''omic'' approaches can already been found, although most also relate to aquaculture, such as transcription analysis by cDNA microarrays and PCR techniques (Manchado et al 2008;Osuna-Jiménez et al 2009;Prieto-Á lamo et al 2009 and a few others) and proteomics (Forné et al 2009;Salas-Leiton et al 2009;Costa et al 2010).…”