Genetic Basis Underlying Behavioral Correlation Between Fugu Takifugu rubripes and a Closely Related Species, Takifugu niphobles

Variation in defensive and exploratory behaviors across a rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus × viridis) hybrid zone in Southwestern new Mexico

Studies on animal temperaments (consistent differences in behaviors across contexts) and behavioral syndromes (suites of correlated behaviors across contexts) have surged in recent decades. Accordingly, behavioral ecologists have gained greater appreciation for their evolutionary role and significance. Yet, despite their importance as potential evolutionary drivers, research focused on temperament and syndromes in shaping hybridization events is vastly understudied. Case studies have shown that hybridization has multiple effects on these phenomena, such as eliminating syndromes present in parental lineages and generating novel syndromes within hybrids. Here, we assessed temperament and syndromes in a naturally occurring rattlesnake hybrid zone (Crotalus scutulatus × viridis). We used laboratory behavioral assays to quantify defensive and explorative behaviors, and tested whether these traits were correlated with spatial and hunting behaviors of free-ranging individuals. C. viridis was more significantly more prone to rattle than C. scutulatus during handling tests. Similarly, hybrid individuals that had a greater proportion of their genome derived from C. viridis were also more prone to rattle. Parental and hybrid snakes exhibited varying syndromes in defensiveness and exploratory behaviors, yet further research is necessary to determine whether they impact hybrid fitness by creating mismatches between temperaments and predation pressures under natural conditions.

Host Hybridization Dominates over Cohabitation in Affecting Gut Microbiota of Intrageneric Hybrid Takifugu Pufferfish

Microbial symbionts are of great importance for macroscopic life, including fish, and both collectively comprise an integrated biological entity known as the holobiont. Yet little is known as to how the normal balance within the fish holobiont is maintained and how it responds to biotic and/or abiotic influences. Here, through amplicon profiling, the genealogical relationship between artificial F1 hybrid pufferfish with growth heterosis, produced from crossing female Takifugu obscurus with male Takifugu rubripes and its maternal halfsibling purebred, was well recapitulated by their gut microbial community similarities, indicating an evident parallelism between host phylogeny (hybridity) and microbiota relationships therein. Interestingly, modest yet significant fish growth promotion and gut microbiota alteration mediated by hybrid-purebred cohabitation were observed, in comparison with their respective monoculture cohorts that share common genetic makeups, implying a certain degree of environmental influences. Moreover, the underlying assemblage patterns of gut microbial communities were found associated with a trade-off between variable selection and dispersal limitation, which are plausibly driven by the augmented social interactions between hybrid and purebred cohabitants differing in behaviors. Results from this study not only can enrich, from a microbial perspective, the sophisticated understanding of complex and dynamic assemblage of the fish holobiont, but will also provide deeper insights into the ecophysiological factors imposed on the diversity-function relationships thereof. Our findings emphasize the intimate associations of gut microbiota in host genetics-environmental interactions and would have deeper practical implications for microbial contributions to optimize performance prediction and to improve the production of farmed fishes. IMPORTANCE Microbial symbionts are of great importance for macroscopic life, including fish, and yet little is known as to how the normal balance within the fish holobiont is maintained and how it responds to the biotic and/or abiotic influences. Through gut microbiota profiling, we show that host intrageneric hybridization and cohabitation can impose a strong disturbance upon pufferfish gut microbiota. Moreover, marked alterations in the composition and function of gut microbiota in both hybrid and purebred pufferfish cohabitants were observed, which are potentially correlated with different metabolic priorities and behaviors between host genealogy. These results can enrich, from a microbial perspective, the sophisticated understanding of the complex and dynamic assemblage of the fish holobiont and would have deeper practical implications for microbial contributions to optimize performance prediction and to improve farmed fish production.

Capacity for freshwater acclimation and differences in the transcription of ion transporter genes underlying different migratory life histories of Takifugu fish

The genus Takifugu is a group of approximately 20 species of puffer fishes living in a wide range of salinity environments around East Asian countries. This group presents a broad spectrum of evolutionary stages adapted to anadromy as a result of speciation that occurred a short time (2-5 million years) ago on an evolutionary timescale. This group thus can be considered as a model for studying the evolutionary mechanisms of anadromy. We firstly conducted a transfer experiment from seawater to low-salinity waters on five Takifugu species: two anadromous species T. obscurus and T. ocellatus, two euryhaline wanderer marine species T. rubripes and T. niphobles, and a strictly marine species T. snyderi, and confirmed that the capacity for acclimation to hypotonic environments was associated with their life history strategies. Next, transcriptomes of the gill and intestine of these species in hypotonic condition were compared to those under hypertonic condition for each species using RNA-Sequencing so as to determine possible candidate transporters playing an important role on freshwater adaptation. As this analysis suggested that cftr, encoding an important ion transporter for seawater acclimation in the gill, and ncc, encoding a transporter that is suggested to play important osmoregulatory roles in the intestine, are important candidates, their expression was validated by quantitative real-time PCR analysis. Expression of cftr was downregulated in the gills of the four euryhaline species under the hypotonic condition, but no change was detected in the gill of stenohaline T. snyderi, which may be one reason for the poor hypotonic acclimation capacity of T. snyderi. Expression of ncc was clearly upregulated in the intestines of the two anadromous species under the hypotonic condition, but not in other three species. Different ion transporter expression patterns between the five species indicate that the transcriptional regulation of cftr in the gill and ncc in the intestine may be important for the improvement of hypotonic acclimation capacity and evolution of anadromy in the Takifugu species.

The Genetic Basis of Scale-Loss Phenotype in the Rapid Radiation of Takifugu Fishes

Rapid radiation associated with phenotypic divergence and convergence provides an opportunity to study the genetic mechanisms of evolution. Here we investigate the genus Takifugu that has undergone explosive radiation relatively recently and contains a subset of closely-related species with a scale-loss phenotype. By using observations during development and genetic mapping approaches, we show that the scale-loss phenotype of two Takifugu species, T. pardalis Temminck & Schlegel and T. snyderi Abe, is largely controlled by an overlapping genomic segment (QTL). A search for candidate genes underlying the scale-loss phenotype revealed that the QTL region contains no known genes responsible for the evolution of scale-loss phenotype in other fishes. These results suggest that the genes used for the scale-loss phenotypes in the two Takifugu are likely the same, but the genes used for the similar phenotype in Takifugu and distantly related fishes are not the same. Meanwhile, Fgfrl1, a gene predicted to function in a pathway known to regulate bone/scale development was identified in the QTL region. Since Fgfr1a1, another memebr of the Fgf signaling pathway, has been implicated in scale loss/scale shape in fish distantly related to Takifugu, our results suggest that the convergence of the scale-loss phenotype may be constrained by signaling modules with conserved roles in scale development.

A highly flexible and repeatable genotyping method for aquaculture studies based on target amplicon sequencing using next-generation sequencing technology

Studies using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have become commonplace in genetics and genomics, due to advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies. Since the numbers of required SNPs and samples vary depending on each research goal, genotyping technologies with high flexibility in the number of SNPs/samples and high repeatability have been intensively investigated. For example, the ultrahigh-multiplexed amplicon sequencing, Ion AmpliSeq, has been used as a high-throughput genotyping method mainly for diagnostic purposes. Here, we designed a custom panel targeting 3,187 genome-wide SNPs of fugu, Takifugu rubripes, and applied it for genotyping farmed fugu to test its feasibility in aquaculture studies. We sequenced two libraries consisting of different pools of individuals (n = 326 each) on the Illumina MiSeq sequencer. Consequently, over 99% target regions (3,178 SNPs) were amplified and 2,655 SNPs were available after filtering steps. Strong correlation was observed in the mean depth of coverage of each SNP between duplicate runs (r = 0.993). Genetic analysis using these genotype data successfully detected the known population structure and the sex determining locus of fugu. These results show the method is superior in repeatability and flexibility, and suits genetic studies including molecular breeding, such as marker assisted and genomic selection.

Differential expression of skin mucus C-type lectin in two freshwater eel species, Anguilla marmorata and Anguilla japonica

Two types of lactose-specific lectins, galectin (AJL-1) and C-type lectin (AJL-2), were previously identified in the mucus of adult Anguilla japonica. Here, we compared the expression profiles of these two homologous lectins at the adult and juvenile stages between the tropical eel Anguilla marmorata and the temperate eel A. japonica. Only one lectin, predicted to be an orthologue of AJL-1 by LC-MS/MS, was detected in the mucus of adult A. marmorata. We also found that an orthologous gene to AJL-2 was expressed at very low levels, or not at all, in the skin of adult A. marmorata. However, we detected the gene expression of an AJL-2-orthologue in the skin of juvenile A. marmorata, and a specific antibody also detected the lectin in the juvenile fish epidermis. These findings suggest that expression profiles of mucosal lectins vary during development as well as between species in the Anguilla genus.