The developmental transition from the larval to juvenile stage, represents one of the highest periods of mortality for many species of fish. Thus, understanding the factors that may influence susceptibility to environmental stressors at this vulnerable stage is likely to be important for predicting responses to environmental change. Here, we compared gill mRNA transcript abundance during this critical developmental transition in fish from two geographically distinct populations of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) that experience highly divergent thermal environments. Throughout the developmental transition from the larval to juvenile stage (30 to 60 days post-fertilization), the 'colder' northern population exhibited differential expression of approximately twice as many transcripts as compared to their 'warmer' southern counterparts. Transcriptional modifications that were conserved across both populations during the transition from the larva to juvenile stage were involved in histone methylation, protein binding, and apoptotic signaling associated with cell death and turnover. The northern population, specifically, had increased changes associated with GTPase signaling activation, cell surface proteins, mitochondrial and epithelial development which may have contributed to the larger magnitude of transcriptional change in this population, compared to their southern counterparts. Together these findings demonstrate the impacts of transcriptional shifts in the gill during development in lake sturgeon, as well as the potential for population-specific developmental processes.

Keywords: Development; Gill; Population-specific; RNA-seq; Sturgeon.

Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.

从幼虫阶段到稚鱼阶段的发育过渡，是许多鱼类物种死亡率最高的时期之一。因此，了解可能影响这一脆弱阶段对环境胁迫敏感性的因素，对于预测环境变化的响应可能是重要的。在这里，我们比较了来自地理上不同的湖鲟（Acipenser fulvescens）两个种群在高度分化温热环境中从幼虫到稚鱼发育过渡期鳃mRNA转录本丰度的变化。在整个从幼虫到稚鱼阶段的发育过渡期间（受精后30至60天），较“冷”的北部种群相比其较“暖”南部同类，表现出大约两倍多的差异表达转录本。在两个种群从幼虫到稚鱼的转变过程中保守的转录组修饰涉及组蛋白甲基化、蛋白质结合和与细胞死亡及周转相关的凋亡信号传导。特别是北部种群，在GTP酶信号激活、细胞表面蛋白、线粒体和上皮发育方面有增加的变化，这可能促成了其相比南部同类更大的转录变化幅度。这些发现共同展示了湖鲟在发育过程中鳃中发生的转录变化的影响，以及特定种群特有的发育过程的可能性。

关键词： 发育；鳃；种群特异性；RNA-seq；鲟鱼。

版权 © 2025。Elsevier Inc.出版。