Gene expression profile during proliferation and differentiation of rainbow trout adipocyte precursor cells

Excessive accumulation of adipose tissue in cultured fish is an outstanding problem in aquaculture. To understand the development of adiposity, it is crucial to identify the genes which expression is associated with adipogenic differentiation. Therefore, the transcriptomic profile at different time points (days 3, 8, 15 and 21) along primary culture development of rainbow trout preadipocytes has been investigated using an Agilent trout oligo microarray.

Our analysis identified 4026 genes differentially expressed (fold-change >3) that were divided into two major clusters corresponding to the main phases observed during the preadipocyte culture: proliferation and differentiation. Proliferation cluster comprised 1028 genes up-regulated from days 3 to 8 of culture meanwhile the differentiation cluster was characterized by 2140 induced genes from days 15 to 21. Proliferation was characterized by enrichment in genes involved in basic cellular and metabolic processes (transcription, ribosome biogenesis, translation and protein folding), cellular remodelling and autophagy. In addition, the implication of the eicosanoid signalling pathway was highlighted during this phase. On the other hand, the terminal differentiation phase was enriched with genes involved in energy production, lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Moreover, during this phase an enrichment in genes involved in the formation of the lipid droplets was evidenced as well as the activation of the thyroid-receptor/retinoic X receptor (TR/RXR) and the peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) signalling pathways. The whole adipogenic process was driven by a coordinated activation of transcription factors and epigenetic modulators.

Overall, our study demonstrates the coordinated expression of functionally related genes during proliferation and differentiation of rainbow trout adipocyte cells. Furthermore, the information generated will allow future investigations of specific genes involved in particular stages of fish adipogenesis.