Integrative Transcriptomics and Metabolomics Analysis of Body Color Formation in the Leopard Coral Grouper (Plectropomus leopardus)

Abstract

Body color is an important economic and ecological trait in aquatic animals, which influence their economic values and determine the animal ability to survive in the marine environment. Red-colored Plectropomus leopardus is in high demand owing to its bright color and potential value for artificial breeding. High-throughput transcriptome sequencing and liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) approaches were used to identify transcript and metabolic differences between black-colored and red-colored P. leopardus. Compared with the black-colored group, 218 and 181 differentially expressed genes were up- and down- regulated, respectively, in the red-colored group. 425 and 56 significantly different metabolites were identified in LC-MS positive and LC-MS negative ion models, respectively, between two colored groups. Based on the integrative analysis, the red-colored group exhibited greater carotenoid uptake, transport, and accumulation activity potential than those in the black-colored group and may consume more arachidonic acid for body color formation. The black-colored group showed greater melanin synthesis activity compared with the red-colored group. These results substantially improve the understanding of molecular and metabolic mechanisms underlying body color formation in P. leopardus and the potential of body color for the environment adaptation.

Analysis of body color formation of leopard coral grouper Plectropomus leopardus

“…Body coloration is crucial for environmental adaptation, and the mechanisms underlying it have been researched in fish (Kelsh, 2004;Beirl et al, 2014). A series of genes associated with body color formation and pigmentation have been identified in different body color individuals or tissues from coral leopard grouper (Yang et al, 2020;Zhu et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2022;Wen et al, 2022). There also reports showed the heavy metal and diet that influenced the molecular level of P. leopardus with the method of transcriptome and presented that the lipid metabolism, immune system (Wei et al, 2022);.…”

“…Both the red-colored and brown-colored groups were obtained from base stock established with the breeders collected from Hainan and Taiwan provinces of China, Australia and Philippines. They were reared in the same conditions with studies of Zhu et al (2021) and Hao et al (2022). The skin tissues from similar part of six fishes of every group were used for metabolome sequencing, and every two samples were mixed to make one sample for mRNA and miRNA analysis (Figure S1, Zhu et al, 2021;Hao et al, 2022).…”

“…They were reared in the same conditions with studies of Zhu et al (2021) and Hao et al (2022). The skin tissues from similar part of six fishes of every group were used for metabolome sequencing, and every two samples were mixed to make one sample for mRNA and miRNA analysis (Figure S1, Zhu et al, 2021;Hao et al, 2022). Red-colored group data of mRNA and miRNA were obtained and analyzed from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) of the NCBI (SRR15195628, SRR15195629, SRR15195630 and SRR15647331, SRR15647332, SRR15647333, respectively).…”

“…Each sample (50 mg) was utilized in liquid chromatographymass spectrometry (LC-MS)/MS and high-performance liquid chromatography analysis as per the method described by Zhu et al (2021). Metabolite detection and identification was as per the primary and secondary spectral data with the following databases: KNApSAcK (http://kanaya.naist.jp/ KNApSAcK/), HMDB (http://www.hmdb.ca/), MWDB (Wuhan Metware Biotechnology Co., Ltd.), MassBank (http:// www.massbank.jp/), METLIN (http://metlin.scripps.edu/index.…”

“…Leopard coral grouper (Plectropomus leopardus) is characterized by different body colors that influence its survival in a changeable environment and economic value (Maoka et al, 2017). Transcriptome or genome sequencing analysis of P. leopardus explored multiple genes associated with body color formation (Wang et al, 2015;Zhu et al, 2021;Hao et al, 2022). However, studies of the underlying mechanism of body color formation in P. leopardus are still unclear.…”