Transcriptome analysis provides insights into copper toxicology in piebald naked carp (Gymnocypris eckloni)

Copper was used for many years in aquaculture operations as an effective algaecide or a parasite treatment of fish. It is an essential nutrient with numerous functions in organisms, but is toxic at high concentrations. However, the toxicity of copper to fish remains unclear. In this study, we used t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	BMC genomics Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 1 - 416
Main Authors:	Jin, Wenjie, Li, Zixuan, Ran, Fengxia, Huang, Shen, Huo, Kefan, Li, Jianjuan, Han, Qingshuo, Wang, Guojie, Wang, Zhenji, Jian, Shenlong, Li, Kemao, Li, Changzhong
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London BioMed Central Ltd 05-06-2021 BioMed Central BMC
Subjects:	Algicides Annotations Aquaculture Caretta caretta Carp Cellular stress response Chemical synthesis Copper Copper in the body Elongation Fish Fish parasites Gene expression Gene regulation Genes Genetic aspects Genetic transcription Genomics Gills Gymnocypris eckloni Health aspects Herbicides Information processing Initiation factors Kidneys Liver Metabolism Molecular machines Nutrient concentrations Oxidative stress Parasites Physiological aspects Pollutants Protein biosynthesis Protein synthesis Proteins Ribonucleic acid RNA RNA-seq Signal transduction Tissues Toxicity Toxicology Transcriptome Transcriptomes Translation elongation China
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Summary:	Copper was used for many years in aquaculture operations as an effective algaecide or a parasite treatment of fish. It is an essential nutrient with numerous functions in organisms, but is toxic at high concentrations. However, the toxicity of copper to fish remains unclear. In this study, we used the piebald naked carp, Gymnocypris eckloni, as a model. RNA-seq data from different tissues, including gills, kidney, and liver, were used to investigate the underlying mechanism of copper toxicology in G. eckloni. We compared the transcriptomes from different tissues with different time durations of copper ion treatment. After 72 h copper ion treatment, the number of genes with different expression in gills and liver changed dramatically, but not in kidneys. In KEGG functional enrichment, the pattern of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was also similar in the gills and liver. The most enriched pathway of DEGs was "Ribosome" in both tissues. Furthermore, we analyzed the expression levels of genes involved in oxidative stress response and protein synthesis using qPCR and RNA-seq data. Our results showed that several genes involved in oxidative stress response were up-regulated both in gills and liver. Up-regulation of these genes indicated that copper treatment caused oxidative stress, which is likely to result in ribosome damage. In addition, our results showed that the expression of Eef1b2, a transcription elongation factor, was decreased in the liver under oxidative stress, and the expression of translation initiation factors Eif4ebp1 and eIF2[alpha], and elongation factor eEF2 was up-regulated. These results supported the idea that oxidative stress inhibits protein synthesis in cells. Our results indicate that copper exposure caused different responses in different tissues, since the gene expression patterns changed substantially either in the gills or liver, while the effect on the kidney was relatively weak. Furthermore, our results indicated that the expression pattern of the genes involved in the ribosome, which is a complex molecular machine orchestrating protein synthesis in the cell, together with translation initiation factor and elongation factors, were affected by copper exposure both in the gills and liver of piebald naked carp. This result leads us to speculate that the downregulation of global protein synthesis is an acute response strategy of fish to metal-induced oxidative stress. Moreover, we speculate that this strategy not only exists in the selective translation of proteins but also exists in the specific translation of functional proteins in tissues and cells.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1471-2164 1471-2164
DOI:	10.1186/s12864-021-07673-4