Identification and characterization of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) involved in the intramuscular bone formation of tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum)

• Grant number: 22/03353-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2022
• End date: July 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Fishery Resources and Fishery Engineering - Inland Water Fishery Resources
• Principal Investigator: Danillo Pinhal
• Grantee: Arthur Gasparindo Moreira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IBB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The production and quality of food produced, as well as environmental sustainability and the current humanitarian crisis are some of the challenges to be overcome in the coming decades and aquaculture is one of the emerging food production sectors. In Brazil, fish production has annual growth rates and among the species produced, tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) is the most cultivated and consumed native species, however it has an undesirable characteristic, which is the presence of spines, also called intramuscular bones. In functional terms, there is a lack of consensus on the exact role played by these bones, in addition to the fact that several species are naturally lacking, without any evidence of loss of functionality. Although there are studies describing the biological processes associated with the development of tambaqui, details of the molecular pathways end up being unresolvable to the point of elucidating the pathway of formation of intramuscular bones and coding and non-coding transcripts that act as key regulators, whose modulation could lead to numerical reduction. or even the elimination of intramuscular bones in fish. Therefore, the project proposes the characterization of long-chain non-coding RNAs by means of Whole Transcriptome Sequencing (WTS) of tambaqui using RNA-seq and bioinformatics analyzes with the objective of detecting differential signatures of gene expression, informative for the generation of individuals with the spineless phenotype of economic interest.