Aquaculture America 2021

August 11 - 14, 2021

San Antonio, Texas

EXPRESSION OF THE SREB FAMILY OF G-PROTEIN COUPLED RECEPTORS ACROSS FISH EVOLUTION

Matthew A. DiMaggio*, Andrew R. Wilcox, Anyssa M. Phaneuf, Will Sampson, Tamara True, Taylor Lipscomb, Casey Murray, and Timothy Breton
 
Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory
Program in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatic Sciences
University of Florida
Ruskin, FL 33570
mdimaggi@ufl.edu
 

Super-conserved Receptor Expressed in Brain (SREB) is a highly conserved family of G-protein coupled receptors implicated in diabetes and several neurological disorders, and consists of three members (sreb1, sreb2, and sreb3). Previous genomic analyses revealed a novel fourth member (sreb3b) specific to euteleost fish. However, sreb3b expression is not yet characterized, and few studies have measured these receptors across multiple tissues in fish, including the gonads where SREBs are important in reproductive functions. The objective of this study was to measure SREB expression in gonads, and broadly characterize sreb3b throughout fish evolution. To this end, diverse fish species were used in qPCR, including Florida gar (Lepisosteus platyrhincus), zebrafish (Danio rerio), sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna), African turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri), and green-spotted puffer (Dichotomyctere nigroviridis).  Killifish ovaries were used for in situ hybridizations to determine sreb3b spatial patterns. Overall, ancestral gar showed high sreb expression in ovaries, while more derived species exhibited elevated levels in testes. However, sreb1 was elevated in testes for all species. Across organs, sreb3b was highest in neural tissues, exhibiting patterns most similar to sreb2, while sreb1 and sreb3 were elevated in both neural and gonadal tissues. In situ hybridizations identified sreb3b in oocytes and follicle cells, indicating possible roles in both ovarian development and as a stored transcript for embryonic growth. Expression patterns indicate that SREB roles may not be conserved across fishes. Future studies should focus on the roles of the SREB family in gonads, and sreb3b functions in the brain.