Dynamics of gene expression patterns during early development of the European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

Larval and embryonic stages are the most critical period in the life cycle of marine fish. Key developmental events occur early in development and are influenced by external parameters like stress, temperature, salinity, and photoperiodism. Any failure may cause malformations, developmental delays, poor growth, and massive mortalities. Advanced understanding of molecular processes underlying marine larval development may lead to superior larval rearing conditions. Today, the new sequencing and bioinformatic methods allow transcriptome screens comprising messenger (mRNA) and microRNA (miRNA) with the scope of detecting differential expression for any species of interest. In the present study, we applied Illumina technology to investigate the transcriptome of early developmental stages of the European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax). The European seabass, in its natural environment, is a euryhaline species and has shown high adaptation processes in early life phases. During its embryonic and larval phases the European seabass lives in a marine environment and as a juvenile it migrates to coastal zones, estuaries, and lagoons. Investigating the dynamics of gene expression in its early development may shed light on factors promoting phenotypic plasticity and may also contribute to the improvement and advancement of rearing methods of the European seabass, a species of high economic importance in European and Mediterranean aquaculture. We present the identification, characterization, and expression of mRNA and miRNA, comprising paralogous genes and differentially spliced transcripts from early developmental stages of the European seabass. We further investigated the detection of possible interactions of miRNA with mRNA.