Identification and characterization of microRNAs in the gonads of Crassostrea hongkongensis using high-throughput sequencing

Publication date: Available online 5 July 2019Source: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D: Genomics and ProteomicsAuthor(s): Pinyuan Wei, Pingping He, Xingzhi Zhang, Wei Li, Li Zhang, Junliang Guan, Xiaohan Chen, Yong Lin, Xiaofei Zhuo, Qiongzhen Li, Jinxia PengAbstractCrassostrea hongkongensis is one of the three most-commonly cultivated oyster species in China. Although microRNAs (miRNAs) expression in the gonads have been widely investigated, few studies of miRNAs in mollusk gonads are available, particularly in oyster. In the present study, we analyzed the miRNAs expressed in the ovaries and testes of C. hongkongensis. We obtained 14,166,409 and 15,133,900 raw reads from the ovaries and testes, respectively, yielding 13,634,997 (ovarian) and 14,494,149 (testicular) 18–35-nt sequences. We mapped these sequences to the C. hongkongensis genome reference sequence, and identified 8,771,717 (ovarian) and 9,926,014 (testicular) sequences corresponding to miRNAs in the Rfam database. After blasting the miRNA sequences against the miRBase database, we identified 50 known mature miRNAs and 53 novel miRNAs. Of these, 27 miRNAs were significantly upregulated in ovaries as compared to the testes, and 43 miRNAs were significantly upregulated in the testes as compared to the ovaries.To validate the differential expression results generated by Illumina sequencing, we used RT-real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) to characterize the expression patterns of the six most differen...
Source: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D: Genomics and Proteomics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: research