Zebrafish and LPS, model tools for deciphering epigenetic changes during sex differentiation

International Conference & Exposition Aquaculture Europe 2019, Our Future Growing from Water, 7-10 October 2019, Berlin, Germany.-- 2 pages, 1 figure
Fish farmed for human consumption are reared in artificial environments that are very different from conditions that species experience in the wild. Consequently, the environment influences many aspects of the biology of cultured animals, including sexual phenotype through epigenetic mechanisms (Feeney et al., 2014). Disease outbreaks occur eventually in fish farms, causing economic loses. However, the epigenetic consequences that these reiterating infections can potentially cause in fish during their development and whether these can alter the reproductive system, remain unknown. Here we present a study for which two model research tools have been selected; the zebrafish as a suitable model for aquaculture research (Ribas and Piferrer, 2014) and the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Gram negative bacterial wall as a model to stimulate the immune system in fish(Forn-Cuní et al., 2017). The aim of this work is to develop a suitable in vivo system to study whether infections occurring in fishduring sex differentiation are able to alter the finalgonadal phenotype throughout epigenetic changes
This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry grant AGL2015-73864-JIN “Ambisex” to LR