Research Paper Volume 16, Issue 18 pp 12443—12472

Figure 5. The rate of gonadal transcriptional change with life-stage progression in single-housed fish is slower than that in group-housed fish. RNA sequencing of testes and ovaries from group- and single-housed fish at the following four different life stages: onset of sexual maturity, young adult, mature adult, and middle-aged adult. The data were obtained from two or three samples at each life stage. (A) The dendrograms represent the hierarchical clustering of the samples based on the similarity of the changes in the average expression at each life stage for gene sets with TPM > 10 in at least one sample. (B) PCA plots prepared using VST values of the genes with TPM > 10 in at least one sample. Each number represents an individual sample at each growth stage. The black arrows in the left plot of the testis show the group- and single-housed fish at the young adult stage. *, p < 0.05 by t-test and Kruskal-Wallis test. (C) Changes in the individual expression of germ cell marker genes at each stage of spermatogenesis, early-oogenesis-related genes, oocyte-construction-related genes and female-gonad-development-related genes. piwil1, piwi-like RNA-mediated gene silencing 1; dazl, deleted in azoospermia-like; sycp3, synaptonemal complex protein 3; odf3b, outer dense fiber of sperm tails 3B; tdrd1, tudor domain containing 1; tdrd7a, tudor domain containing 7a; tdrd6, tudor domain containing 6; tdrd15, tudor domain containing 15; dctn2, dynactin 2; pld6, phospholipase D family, member 6; buc, bucky ball; pum1, pumilio RNA-binding family member 1; tdrkn, tudor and KH domain containing; figla, folliculogenesis specific bHLH transcription factor; ythdf2, YTH N6-methyladenosine RNA binding protein F2; lhcgr, luteinizing hormone/choriogonadotropin receptor; cyp19a1a, cytochrome P450, family 19, subfamily A, polypeptide 1a; pla2g4ab, phospholipase A2, group IVAb; fshr, follicle stimulating hormone receptor; ythdf3, YTH N6-methyladenosine RNA binding protein F3; pgrmc1, progesterone receptor membrane component 1. (A–C) G: group-housed fish, S: single-housed fish.