Characterization of the skeletal muscle transcriptome of pacu juveniles and adults (Piaractus mesopotamicus)

• Grant number: 19/23690-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2020
• End date: December 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Fishery Resources and Fishery Engineering - Aquaculture
• Principal Investigator: Edson Assunção Mareco
• Grantee: Victor Hugo Garcia de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação. Universidade do Oeste Paulista (UNOESTE). Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus) has excellent zootechnical characteristics, such as rapid growth, a parameter that directly influences the increase of skeletal muscles. Research involving the characterization of muscle genes has been performed using molecular technologies in model fish species such as Zebrafish that have the sequenced genome. In pacu, a species that does not have a sequenced genome, this lack of genetic information makes it difficult to conduct research related to the identification of signaling pathways that regulate the development, growth and maintenance of muscle phenotype. Next-generation sequencing has become very effective and progressively increasing coverage for transcriptome gene sequences in non-model fish species. This technology makes it possible to generate a reference transcriptome for the study of global gene expression, identification of gene duplications (paralogs), besides allowing future sequences of transcriptomes and genomes of the species and other phylogenetically related ones. In this work, we intend to evaluate in silico the differences between the adult and juvenile musculature of pacu and then perform the validation of genes identified as differentially expressed in bioinformatics analyzes.