Transcriptome Analysis and Discovery of Genes Involved in Immune Pathways from Coelomocytes of Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) after Vibrio splendidus Challenge

Abstract

Vibrio splendidus is identified as one of the major pathogenic factors for the skin ulceration syndrome in sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus), which has vastly limited the development of the sea cucumber culture industry. In order to screen the immune genes involving Vibrio splendidus challenge in sea cucumber and explore the molecular mechanism of this process, the related transcriptome and gene expression profiling of resistant and susceptible biotypes of sea cucumber with Vibrio splendidus challenge were collected for analysis. A total of 319,455,942 trimmed reads were obtained, which were assembled into 186,658 contigs. After that, 89,891 representative contigs (without isoform) were clustered. The analysis of the gene expression profiling identified 358 differentially expression genes (DEGs) in the bacterial-resistant group, and 102 DEGs in the bacterial-susceptible group, compared with that in control group. According to the reported references and annotation information from BLAST, GO and KEGG, 30 putative bacterial-resistant genes and 19 putative bacterial-susceptible genes were identified from DEGs. The qRT-PCR results were consistent with the RNA-Seq results. Furthermore, many DGEs were involved in immune signaling related pathways, such as Endocytosis, Lysosome, MAPK, Chemokine and the ERBB signaling pathway.

Transcriptomic analysis of sea cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota) coelomocytes revealed the echinoderm cytokine response during immune challenge

“…At present, more and more studies on the immune system of the sea cucumber have been developed at both the molecular and cellular levels, which were based on the basal information for immune-related genes that provided by the transcriptomic studies [25]. However, the specific immune defense mechanism in the effector coelomocytes is still unclear.…”

“…In addition, the applications of transcriptomic analyses in sea cucumber include identification of long noncoding RNA species [21], illustration of the mechanisms of aestivation [22], abnormal development [23], and body wall pigmentation [24]. Moreover, immune-related genes in the A. japonicus coelomocytes under Vibrio splendidus challenge have been identified, which are clustered into the immune pathways of endocytosis, lysosome, chemokine, and MAPK and ERBB signaling [25]. However, there is still limited research reports on the species and response of the cytokines secreted by coelomocytes of sea cucumber under challenge of immune stimuli.…”

Transcriptome analysis of growth variation in early juvenile stage sandfishHolothuria scabra

“…Sandfish DMBT1 contains the canonical domains CUB, SRCR, and zona pellucida, which have been implicated in the mediation of protein-protein interactions 77 . DMBT1 has been suggested to be involved in host disease susceptibility and resistance 78,79 and in different developmental processes 80,81 . A natterin-like gene sharing similar domains (i.e., functionally uncharacterized DUF3421 superfamily and an aerolysin-like pore-forming domain) with naquin (Thalassophryne nattereri) natterins was also found to be differentially expressed in all hatchery datasets 82 .…”

mcp, aer, cheB, and cheV contribute to the regulation of Vibrio alginolyticus (ND‐01) adhesion under gradients of environmental factors

“…Because RNA‐Seq can survey the entire transcriptome in a very high‐throughput and quantitative manner (Yang, Zheng, Cui, Yang, & Chen, ), allowing an assessment of the complexity of the transcriptome and facilitating the identification of genes (Gao et al., ), this technology has been widely applied to uncover genes and pathways in microbes. In our previous study, we found that treatment with stresses (including Cu, Pb, Hg, and low pH) could reduce the adhesion of V. alginolyticus (ND‐01).…”