Vigo/Santiago de Compostela/Seville, Monday, 29 May 2023.
The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), in collaboration with Pescanova Biomarine Center, has used state-of-the-art techniques to create an interactive map showing how turbot DNA is organised and packaged to give the animal its characteristic flattened shape. The work, published in Scientific Data, offers a new tool for studying the genomic basis of turbot transformation into an adult specimen.
“This tool will allow the scientific community to study in depth the molecular basis of the turbot metamorphosis process and to explore it directly through an interactive DNA map, which reveals active and inactive regions of the genome during this stage of transformation. This will help us understand the fundamental question of how a single genome can create two completely different body designs in one animal,” explains researcher José Rotllant, from the IIM-CSIC.
Flatfish, such as turbot, undergo one of the most striking metamorphoses in the animal kingdom. During development, one eye migrates to the opposite side of the body and the animal adopts a flattened shape that allows it to live on the seabed. This transformation has great biological and aquaculture interest.
The study combines chromatin-accessibility data and gene-expression profiles to identify the genomic regions involved in this process. The interactive map makes it possible to visualise which areas of the genome are active or inactive during metamorphosis, opening new opportunities to understand the regulation of genes involved in body-shape transformation.
The work also provides a resource for the improvement of turbot aquaculture and for basic research into vertebrate development. By understanding how the genome is regulated during metamorphosis, researchers will be able to explore the mechanisms that determine the transition from a bilaterally symmetrical larva to a flat adult fish adapted to life on the bottom.
The study was carried out by researchers from CSIC centres and collaborating institutions, including the Institute of Marine Research (IIM-CSIC), the Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology and Pescanova Biomarine Center.