Divergence of gene expression in neurohypophysial hormone precursors among salmonids

Salmonid fish have pairs of genes for various hypothalamic and pituitary hormones including neurohypophysial hormones, vasotocin, and isotocin, probably because they are tetraploid. The problem here is whether two genes for the same hormone are expressed equally or differently. We therefore examined expression patterns of vasotocin and isotocin genes in four salmonid species using Northern blot analysis with chum salmon cDNAs as hybridization probes. The presence of two vasotocin and also two isotocin genes was confirmed by Southern blot analysis in rainbow trout and sockeye salmon which were not examined previously. Prior to Northern blot analysis, isotocin-I cDNA of sockeye salmon was determined and compared to those of chum salmon and masu salmon, since molecular probes are so specific that cross-species hybridization often leads misinterpretation in a quantitative study. The nucleotide sequence of sockeye salmon isotocin-I cDNA showed sufficiently high homology (> 96.0%) to those of chum salmon and masu salmon for cross-species hybridization among salmonids. Northern blot analysis showed that both isotocin-I and isotocin-II genes were well expressed in all species examined. Expression of isotocin-I gene tended to be relatively higher than that of isotocin-II gene in all species. However, expression pattern of vasotocin-I and vasotocin-II genes did not coincide among species. Expression of vasotocin-II genes was very weak or scarce in masu salmon and rainbow trout, while that in sockeye salmon was stronger than vasotocin-I gene expression. The present result may reflect complicated molecular evolution of salmonid vasotocin genes probably both in regulatory and coding regions.