pitpβ_w Encoding Phosphatidylinositol Transfer Protein Is Involved in Female Differentiation of Chinese Tongue Sole, Cynoglossus semilaevis

Yuxuan Sun; Mengqian Zhang; Peng Cheng; Zhihong Gong; Xihong Li; Na Wang; Min Wei; Xiaodong Xu; Wenteng Xu

doi:10.3389/fgene.2022.861763

pitpβ_w Encoding Phosphatidylinositol Transfer Protein Is Involved in Female Differentiation of Chinese Tongue Sole, Cynoglossus semilaevis

Front Genet. 2022 Mar 30:13:861763. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.861763. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yuxuan Sun^{1

2}, Mengqian Zhang¹, Peng Cheng¹, Zhihong Gong¹, Xihong Li¹, Na Wang¹, Min Wei², Xiaodong Xu³, Wenteng Xu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (CAFS), Qingdao, China.
² Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang, China.
³ Qingdao Vland Biotech Company Group, Qingdao, China.

Abstract

Phosphatidylinositol transfer protein (pitp) plays an important role in phospholipid transfer in animals. A pitp variant (pitpβ_w) in Chinese tongue sole was identified by transcriptomic analysis for its female-biased expression. The coding sequence of pitpβ_w was 816 bp, encoding a 371-amino-acid protein. pitpβ_w showed female-biased expression and was relatively high in brain, muscle, and ovary tissues. In different developmental stages of the ovary, pitpβ_w could be detected from 40 days until 3 years post hatching, and the highest expression was observed at 90 days. In situ hybridization revealed that pitpβ_w was predominantly localized in early-stage oocytes (I-III stages). After siRNA-mediated knockdown of pitpβ_w in an ovarian cell line, the expression of sox9a was reduced, while that of figla_tv1 and sox9b was significantly increased. Our findings suggest that pitpβ_w might be involved in female differentiation and early oogenesis.

Keywords: Cynoglossus semilaevis; RNA interference; female differentiation; oogenesis; pitpβ_w.