Discussion
The findings of whole transcriptomic study on brain deciphered the miRNA-mRNA interaction patterns and pathways associated with salinity adaptation of L. rohita.
Methods
RNA-seq study was performed on collected brain samples at 8ppt salt concentration and analyzed for differential gene expression, functional annotation and miRNA-mRNA regulatory network.
Results
We found that 2450 genes were having significant differential up and down regulation. The study identified 20 hub genes based on maximal clique centrality algorithm. These hub genes were mainly involved in various signaling pathways, energy metabolism and ion transportation. Further, 326 up and 1214 down regulated genes were found to be targeted by 7 differentially expressed miRNAs i.e., oni-miR-10712, oni-miR-10736, ssa-miR-221-3p, ssa-miR-130d-1-5p, ssa-miR-144-5p and oni-miR-10628. Gene ontology analysis of these differentially expressed genes led to the finding that these genes were involved in signal transduction i.e., calcium, FOXO, PI3K-AKT, TGF-β, Wnt and p53 signalling pathways. Differentially expressed genes were also involved in regulation of immune response, environmental adaptation i.e., neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, ECM-receptor interaction, cell adhesion molecules and circadian entrainment, osmoregulation and energy metabolism, which are critical for salinity adaptation.