Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2017
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V59
Höfundar / Authors: Grétar Guðmundsson, Kalina Histova Kapralova, Benjamín Sigurgeirsson, Sigríður Rut Franzdóttir, Sigurður Sveinn Snorrason, Zophonías Oddur Jónsson.
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: Háskóli Íslands
Kynnir / Presenter: Grétar Guðmundsson
The Icelandic Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) shows great phenotypic variation in head morphology and body size. In a previous study, we profiled and compared miRNA expression in Arctic charr with different morphologies, a larger limnetic and a smaller benthic morph. Limnetic morphs have pointed snouts and evenly protruding jaws, while benthic morphs possess blunt snouts and shorter lower jaws. Interestingly, two of the miRNA candidates with lower expression in the small benthic morph, miR 17 and miR 19b, belong to a polycistronic miRNA gene (the miR 17-92 cluster, comprising of miR 17, miR 18, miR 19a, miR 20, miR 19b and miR 92a) that is highly conserved in vertebrates and an important regulator of the cell cycle as well as normal development. Human case studies and experiments on mice have associated hemizygous microdeletions spanning the miR 17-92 cluster with Feingold syndrome, a rare autosomal disease characterized by dwarfism, reduced head size and digit abnormalities. Preliminary results from Taq-man microRNA RT-qPCR assays show higher expression of miR-18 in the large benthic morph. An initial comparison of sequences from Atlantic Salmon with our draft Arctic charr genome show multiple paralogous miR 17-92 clusters. Some of these clusters differ between salmon and Arctic charr in cluster copy numbers.