Cold seawater induces early maturational stages in the BPG axis of European eel males

• Published in: BMC Genomics
• Main Authors: Rozenfeld, Christoffer, García-Carpintero-Burgos, Víctor, Pérez Igualada, Luz María, Gallego Albiach, Victor, Herranz-Jusdado, Juan Germán, Tveiten, Helge, Johnsen, Helge K., Fontaine, Romain, Weltzien, F.A., Cañizares Sales, Joaquín, Asturiano, Juan F., Peñaranda, D.S.
• Other Authors: Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Ciencia Animal - Departament de Ciència Animal, Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología Animal - Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Animal, Universitat Politècnica de València. Instituto Universitario Mixto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas - Institut Universitari Mixt de Biologia Molecular i Cel·lular de Plantes, Universitat Politècnica de València. Departamento de Biotecnología - Departament de Biotecnologia, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Economía y Empresa, European Commission, European Cooperation in Science and Technology
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer (Biomed Central Ltd.) 2019
• Subjects: Anguilla anguilla; RNA-sequencing; Epigenetics; Temperature; Spermatogonial proliferation; Migration; Immunofluorescence; Radioimmunoassay; Histology; PRODUCCION ANIMAL; GENETICA; European eel
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10251/154383; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-019-5969-6

[EN] BackgroundThe impossibility of closing the life cycle of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) in captivity troubles the future of this critically endangered species. In addition, the European eel is a highly valued and demanded resource, thus the successful closing of its life cycle would have a substantial economic and ecological impact. With the aim of obtaining the highest gamete quality, the study of the effects of environmental factors, such as temperature, on reproductive performance may prove valuable. This is especially true for the exposure to cold water, which has been reported to improve sexual development in multiple other Actinopterygii species.ResultsEuropean eel males treated with cold seawater (10 degrees C, T10) for 2weeks showed an increase in the proliferation and differentiation of spermatogonial cells until the differentiated spermatogonial type A cell stage, and elevated testosterone and 11-ketotestosterone plasma levels. Transcriptomes from the tissues of the brain-pituitary-gonad (BPG) axis of T10 samples revealed a differential gene expression profile compared to the other experimental groups, with clustering in a principal component analysis and in heat maps of all differentially expressed genes. Furthermore, a functional analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed enriched gene ontology terms involved in the regulation of circadian rhythm, histone modification, meiotic nuclear division, and others.ConclusionsCold seawater treatment had a clear effect on the activity of the BPG-axis of European eel males. In particular, our cold seawater treatment induces the synchronization and increased proliferation and differentiation of specific spermatogonial cells. In the transcriptomic results, genes related to thermoception were observed. This thermoception may have caused the observed effects through epigenetic mechanisms, since all analysed tissues further revealed differentially expressed genes involved in histone modification. The presented results support our hypothesis that a ...