Sex-Specific Genomic Region Identification and Molecular Sex Marker Development of Rock Bream (Oplegnathus fasciatus).

Jie Gong, Bijun Li, Ji Zhao, Zhixiong Zhou, Qiaozhen Ke, Qihui Zhu, Dongdong Xu, Tao Zhou, Peng Xu

Marine biotechnology (New York, N.Y.) 2022 Mar

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Rock bream (Oplegnathus fasciatus) is a valuable commercial marine teleost species, which exhibits sexual dimorphism in growth performance. However, the absence of a rapid and cost-effective sex identification method based on sex-specific genetic marker has impeded study on sex determination mechanisms and breeding applications. In the present study, we firstly developed the PCR method for identifying potential sex-specific sequences in Oplegnathus fasciatus with the next-generation sequencing. Sex-specific genomic regions/loci for sex determination were discovered on Chr2 and Chr6 by genome-wide association analysis, sequencing depth, and heterozygosity comparison between females and males. Candidate sex-determining genes (CCDC63, ITR, WNT4) were furtherly detected in transcriptome data of testes and ovaries. Taken together, a male-specific 34-bp deletion on the Chr2 was identified and developed into molecular marker of sex for O. fasciatus. After validation in individuals with known phenotypic sexes, the accuracy was 100%. This study gives an insight into the mechanism of sex determination in O. fasciatus, and the gender marker is crucial both for future genomic research and for development of efficient and sustainable aquaculture practice. © 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Citation

Jie Gong, Bijun Li, Ji Zhao, Zhixiong Zhou, Qiaozhen Ke, Qihui Zhu, Dongdong Xu, Tao Zhou, Peng Xu. Sex-Specific Genomic Region Identification and Molecular Sex Marker Development of Rock Bream (Oplegnathus fasciatus). Marine biotechnology (New York, N.Y.). 2022 Mar;24(1):163-173