Transcriptome analysis to characterize the genes related to gonad growth and fatty acid metabolism in the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius

Background Sea urchin gonads of both sexes, commonly termed "roe", are highly valued seafood delicacies, and Strongylocentrotus intermedius is considered one of the tastiest sea urchins. In order to produce high-quality gonads for consumption and clarify the mechanism of gonad growth and development of the sea urchin, more genetic information, especially at the transcriptome level, is needed. Objective A more thorough understanding of sea urchin gonad growth and development in both sexes could enable regulation of these processes at several stages with the aim of suppressing gametogenesis in order to produce high-quality gonads for consumption. Methods The adult sea urchins S. intermedius were cultured for 3 months, and were sampled for the gonadal transcriptome analysis which has been performed on the RNAs of three male and female adults of S. intermedius in each gonad development stage. Results Illumina sequencing raw sequence data was deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) database (PRJNA532998). It generated 560,196,356 raw reads and 548,956,944 clean reads were acquired, which were assembled into 107,850 transcripts with 44,124 genes. Comparative analysis showed the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from 114 to 2566. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were used to determine the functional significance of these DEGs. We have selected 9 genes related to growth and 12 genes related to fatty acid biosynthesis and metabolism in sea urchin gonads. Conclusion These data for sea urchins were intended to provide markers for gonad growth and development that can be accumulated for use in aquaculture applications.