Fish environmental RNA sequencing sensitively captures accumulative stress responses through short-term aquarium...

Area of Science:

• Environmental monitoring
• Aquatic toxicology
• Molecular biology

Background:

• Environmental RNA (eRNA) shows promise for detecting biological stress responses.
• Previous studies were limited by the low number of genes detected.
• Assessing fish health in response to environmental contaminants is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the potential of eRNA for assessing Japanese medaka fish health.
• To evaluate eRNA's ability to detect gene expression changes induced by linear alkylbenzene sulfonate exposure.
• To compare eRNA and organismal RNA (oRNA) for stress response analysis.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of eRNA and oRNA from Japanese medaka fish exposed to linear alkylbenzene sulfonate.
• Utilized eRNA-sequencing (eRNA-seq) on aquarium water samples within 12 hours.
• Performed gene ontology (GO) analysis on detected gene expression data.

Main Results:

• Achieved high mapping rates and detected 10 times more differentially expressed genes compared to previous studies.
• eRNA analysis enabled gene ontology analysis, revealing insights into cellular components and cumulative gene expression.
• eRNA demonstrated high sensitivity in detecting genes related to sphingolipid and ceramide biosynthesis, indicative of inflammatory responses.

Conclusions:

• eRNA-sequencing of aquarium water is a sensitive tool for analyzing physiological stress in fish.
• eRNA reflects cumulative gene expression signatures, complementing oRNA's short-term signatures.
• This study advances eRNA-seq technology for environmental health assessments.