Molecular characterization and expression profiles of insulin-like growth factors in yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) during embryonic development.

In this study, to understand the role of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system in the regulation of early development in yellowtail kingfish (YTK, Seriola lalandi), an economically important marine fish species with a high potential for aquaculture, we first cloned the full-length cDNAs for igf1 and igf2 from the liver. YTK igf1 cDNA was 1946 base pairs (bp) in length with an open reading frame (ORF) of 558 bp encoding preproIGF1 of 185 amino acids (aa). The preproIGF1 consisted of 44 aa for the signal peptide, 68 aa for the mature peptide comprising B, C, A, and D domains, and 73 aa for the E domain. YTK igf2 cDNA had an ORF of 648 bp that encoded a total of 215 aa spanning the signal peptide (47 aa), the mature peptide (70 aa), and the E domain (98 aa). At the protein level, both YTK IGF1 and IGF2 exhibited high sequence identities with their corresponding fish counterparts, respectively. Subsequently, quantitative RT-PCR analysis indicated that the highest level of igf1 mRNA expression was recorded in the gonad and liver, while the igf2 mRNA expression was most abundant in the gill and liver. In addition, both igf1 and igf2 were detected in all stages of embryonic development and exhibited different gene expression patterns, supporting that IGF1 and IGF2 could be functional and play important roles during YTK embryogenesis. Overall, this initial study of IGF1 and IGF2 provides an insight into the endocrine mechanism involved in the early development of yellowtail kingfish.