Transcriptome sequencing of the gill and barbel of Southern catfish (Silurus meridionalis) revealed immune responses and novel rhamnose-binding lectins (RBLs)

Southern catfish (Silurus meridionalis) is an economically important species widely cultured in China. It is well known for its fast growth, strong resistance to diseases and euryphage. However, little is known about the mechanisms for its powerful immune systems. Our Fish-T1K project has finished its first phase of 200 fish transcriptomes, with sequencing of gills in most examined fishes. In this study, we performed transcriptome sequencing of the gill and the maxillary barbel of Southern catfish, with the latter as a control. High expression of immune-related transcripts were observed in these two tissues. We observed that genes in the T cell receptor signaling pathway had higher transcription values in the gill than in the barbel. In addition, eight new rhamnose-binding lectins (RBLs) were identified and their carbohydrate recognition domains (CRDs) were classified according to the eight conserved cysteine residues and two conserved motifs (-YGR- and -DPC-). This is the first transcriptome report by high-throughput sequencing of the Southern catfish. Our genomic data and discovery of novel RBLs in this project should be able to promote better understandings of the roles of gills in immune responses and disease prevention for further aquaculture.