Gene expression profiling in muscle tissues of the commercially important teleost, Siniperca chuatsi L.

The Chinese mandarin fish (CMF) has recently become an important species for culture because of its good meat texture, flavor, and high nutritional value. To identify differentially expressed genes controlling meat quality and muscle formation, the Affymetrix Zebrafish genome array was used to screen gene expression profiles in the muscle tissues of the CMF, S. chuatsi. Total RNA was isolated from muscle tissues, labeled with biotin, and hybridized to Zebrafish genome array. Of 14,900 genes on the array, 375 genes were significantly expressed in the muscle tissues of the test fish, in which 180 genes were up-regulated and 195 were down-regulated in muscle tissues. Among the 180 up-regulated genes, 49 were identified and 131 were not found in data banks. The 49 known genes were categorized into eight functional groups, several of which may influence muscle structure and development. The 195 down-regulated genes were classified into nine functional groups. Of the genes identified, 28 genes are directly related to the muscle structural formation and myogenesis. The current study is the first to describe the gene expression profiles in muscle tissues of S. chuatsi, and the data may provide gene transcriptional information with application in aquaculture. A better understanding of the genes controlling muscle formation and textural structures in fish is also provided by these data.