Search

【Objective】 Glucocorticoid receptor (GR) was involved in various biological processes such as osmoregulation, stress and immune modulation in diverse organisms. Therefore, the analysis of GR expression characteristics was conductive to revealing its function in the anti-stress response of fish.【Method】 In the present study, the cDNA of Acipenser dabryanus GR was cloned from the unigene database by transcriptome sequencing of A. dabryanus. The tissue distribution and expression level during starvation stress were further analyzed. 【Result】 The open reading frame of GR was 2316 bp, encoding 771 amino acids, including the conserved zinc finger domain, ligand binding domain of hormone receptors, and the fish specific 9-aa insertion sequence WRARQNMDG. Results showed that GR was ubiquitously expressed in all tested tissues, and was highly expressed in immune-related tissues such as spleen, liver and gill. Relatively high expression levels of GR were also found in brain and heart. Under starvation conditon, the expression level of hepatic GR increased during fasting period and was significantly higher than that of the control group in 7 days and 14 days post starvation. The peak expression of intestinal GR on day 7 of starvation was significantly higher than that on day 0（P<0.05）. After refeeding, the expression level of GR in liver and intestine returned to the control level. 【Conclusion】 The study indicated that GR participated in the stress response process of resisting hunger stress of A. dabryanus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]