Characterization and expression analysis of ho1 from Sander lucioperca under acute hypoxia stress

Sander lucioperca is extremely sensitive to hypoxia, and is prone to hypoxia stress and death during intensive breeding and seedling transportation. In order to investigate the regulating effect of heme oxygenase 1 (HO1) in the response to hypoxia of S. lucioperca, we cloned the full-length cDNA sequence of ho1 gene by RACE (Rapid amplification of cDNA ends) technology. The results indicate that the cDNA length was 1 256 bp (840 bp ORF, 162 bp 5'-UTR and 254 bp 3'-UTR), encoding 279 amino acids. The multiple sequence alignment shows that the similarity of HO1 with Siniperca chuatsi, Dicentrarchus labrax and Micropterus salmoides was 91.84%, 88.69% and 88.11%, respectively. Real-time quantitative PCR discloses that ho1 was expressed in all the tested tissues, with the highest concentration in the brain, followed by the kidney, liver and gills. During the first 3-hour hypoxic stimulation of Pikeperch, ho1 primarily responded in the skin and gills, but mainly played transcriptional regulatory roles in the heart, liver and kidney after 3 h of hypoxic stress. At 12^th hour of reoxygenation, the expression levels of ho1 in all the tissues except the liver returned to a normal level, and hypoxia stress had an enormous effect on the expression of ho1 in the liver. The study reveals that ho1 gene is involved in the molecular regulation mechanisms of S. lucioperca in response to hypoxia and plays an important biological role, which provides theoretical references for understanding the genetic mechanism of hypoxic stress.