A quantitative real-time RT-PCR assay for European eel tyrosine hydroxylase.
Résumé
Dopamine (DA) plays a key inhibitory role in pubertal development of the European eel, but how DAergic neuronal activity is regulated is not known in this species. In order to investigate the regulation of DA inhibition at the molecular level, we developed a quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qrtRT-PCR) assay, using the Light Cycler system, for the expression of eel tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the rate-limiting enzyme in catecholamine biosynthesis. Two different reference genes were compared: the previously cloned eel cytochrome b, and eel acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein P0, the latter of which we cloned and partly sequenced. To further validate the assay, different methods of total RNA extraction were tested and compared. When applied to cDNA extracted from dissected brains of juvenile eels, the expression of TH was highest in the olfactory bulb, followed by the telencephalon including preoptic area, and the di-/mesencephalic areas excluding the optic lobes. TH expression in the optic lobes and in the medulla oblongata was low, whereas no expression could be detected in corpus cerebellum. This distribution pattern is in agreement with earlier studies on TH in the eel using immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR, and Northern blotting. The developed qrtRT-PCR assay provides a new tool for understanding the mechanisms regulating central DA inhibition of puberty in juvenile eels.
Mots clés
Phosphoproteins
Ribosomal Proteins
phosphoprotein P0
Cytochromes b
Algorithms
Amino Acid Sequence
Anguilla metabolism
Animals
Brain anatomy & histology enzymology
Cloning
Molecular
Cytochromes b genetics
DNA Complementary biosynthesis genetics
Female
Molecular Sequence Data
Phosphoproteins genetics metabolism
RNA biosynthesis isolation & purification
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
Ribosomal Proteins genetics metabolism
Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase