Transcriptome analysis provides insights into differentially expressed genes and long noncoding RNAs involved in sex-related differences in Amur sturgeon (Acipenser schrenckii).

In the present study, the next-generation sequencing technology was used to develop a transcriptome database of gonad and liver from 3-year-old male and female Amur sturgeons (Acipenser schrenckii). A total of 139,406 unigenes were generated after the Illumina Hiseq. 2500 sequence and assembled by Trinity. The differential expression analysis between male and female obtained 5,199 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in gonad and 457 DEGs in liver. Gene Ontology enrich analysis showed that the specific DEGs of gonad play a dominant role in reproductive processes. Although the specific DEGs of liver indicated their primary responsibility for energy metabolism, the DEGs of liver and gonad co-own enriched in terms associated with reproduction suggested that liver also plays a role in sex-related differences in Amur sturgeon. Furthermore, genes related to sex-related differences were selected to validate among the four different tissues by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). In addition, by trans-acting analysis, a total of 5,206 putative long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and 3,490 target genes of lncRNAs were predicted from gonad and liver. Moreover, several lncRNAs targeting Mea1, Piwil1, Tdrd1, Nanos2, Ankrd49, and ZP3 may have potential regulatory effect related to gametogenesis and gonadal differentiation were identified and validated by qRT-PCR. These results suggested for the first time that lncRNAs might be one of the effect factors in regulating the differential expression of messenger RNAs associated with sex-related differences in Amur sturgeon.