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Differential expression of somatostatin genes in the central nervous system of the sea lamprey

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Abstract

The identification of three somatostatin (SST) genes (SSTa, SSTb, and SSTc) in lampreys (Tostivint et al. Gen Comp Endocrinol 237:89–97 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2016.08.006, 2016) prompted us to study their expression in the brain and spinal cord of the sea lamprey by in situ hybridization. These three genes were only expressed in equivalent neuronal populations in the hypothalamus. In other regions, SST transcripts showed clear differential expression. In the telencephalon, SSTc-positive cells were observed in the medial pallium, ventral part of the lateral pallium, striatum, subhippocampal lobe, and preoptic region. In the diencephalon, SSTa-positive cells were observed in the thalamus and SSTc-positive cells in the prethalamus, posterior tubercle, pretectal area, and nucleus of the medial longitudinal fascicle. In the midbrain, SSTc-positive cells were observed in the torus semicircularis, lateral reticular area, and perioculomotor tegmentum. Different SSTa- and SSTc-positive populations were observed in the isthmus. SSTc neurons were also observed in the rostral octavolateralis area and caudal rhombencephalon. In the spinal cord, SSTa was expressed in cerebrospinal-fluid-contacting (CSF-c) neurons and SSTc in non-CSF-c interneurons. Comparison with previous immunohistochemical studies using anti-SST-14 antibodies strongly suggests that SST-14-like neurons correspond with the SSTa populations. Thus, the SSTc populations were not reported previously in immunohistochemical studies. Cluster-based analyses and alignments of mature peptides suggested that SSTa is an ortholog of SST1 and that SSTb is closely related to SST2 and SST6. These results provide important new insights into the evolution of the somatostatinergic system in vertebrates.

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Availability of data and materials

Histological material and raw images are available from the authors upon reasonable request. Sequences have been deposited in GenBank (NCBI).

Abbreviations

ARRN:

Anterior rhombencephalic reticular nucleus

Cc:

Central canal of spinal cord

Ch:

Optic chiasm

DC:

Dorsal column

DCN:

Dorsal column nucleus

DIG:

Dorsal isthmic gray

dNpoc:

Dorsal part of the nucleus of the tract of the postoptic commissure

fr:

Fasciculus retroflexus

Ha:

Habenula

Hy:

Hypothalamus

Hyp:

Hypophysis

I1:

I1 isthmic giant reticulospinal neuron

III:

Oculomotor nucleus

IP:

Interpeduncular nucleus

Is:

Isthmus

IXm:

Glossopharyngeal motor nucleus

j:

Juvenile (post-metamorphic adult)

l:

Larva

lHa:

Left habenula

LP:

Lateral pallium

LPv:

Ventral region of the lateral pallium

m:

Mature adult (upstream migrating)

M:

Mesencephalon

MAR:

Mammillary recess

M2:

M2 giant Müller reticulospinal cell

M3:

M3 giant Müller reticulospinal cell

M5:

Schober’s M5 nucleus of the mesencephalon

mlf:

Medial longitudinal fascicle

MP:

Medial pallium (prethalamic eminence of Pombal et al. 2009)

Mpl:

Mesencephalic choroid plexus

MRA:

Mesencephalic reticular area

Nmlf:

Nucleus of the medial longitudinal fascicle

Npoc:

Nucleus of the tract of the postoptic commissure

OB:

Olfactory bulbs

OLA:

Octavolateralis area

OT:

Optic tectum

ot:

Optic tract

P:

Pineal organ

Pa:

Parapineal organ

pc:

Posterior commissure

PO:

Preoptic nucleus

pOc:

Perioculomotor region (griseum centrale of Olson et al. 2017)

poc:

Postoptic commissure

pOMN:

Posterior octavomotor nucleus

Pr:

Preoptic recess

Prn:

Preoptic recess nucleus

PRRN:

Posterior rhombencephalic reticular nucleus

PT:

Pretectum

Pth:

Prethalamus (ventral thalamus)

PTN:

Posterior tubercle nucleus

PTu:

Paratubercular region

rHa:

Right habenula

Rho:

Rhombencephalon

Rpl:

Rhombencephalic choroid plexus

SC:

Spinal cord

sco:

Subcomissural organ

SHL:

Subhippocampal lobe

SO:

Spinooccipital motor nucleus

St:

Striatum

T:

Telencephalon

Th:

Thalamus (dorsal thalamus)

TS:

Torus semicircularis

Vd:

Descending trigeminal tract

Vm:

Trigeminal motor nucleus

vNpoc:

Ventral part of the nucleus of the tract of the postoptic commissure

Xm:

Vagal motor nucleus

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades—Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Grant number: BFU-2017-87079-P). We would also like to thank the members of the biological station of Ximonde for help capturing the lamprey samples.

Funding

FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades–Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Grant Number: BFU-2017–87079-P).

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Correspondence to A. Barreiro-Iglesias.

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Conflict of interest

None.

Ethics approval

All animal experiments were approved by the Bioethics Committee of the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Xunta de Galicia government and conformed to the European Union and Spanish regulations for the care and handling of animals in research.

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Supplementary Information

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429_2021_2224_MOESM1_ESM.fasta

Supplementary file 1. Sequences used for the cluster analysis and alignments performed and shown in figure 1 (FASTA 23 KB)

429_2021_2224_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Supplementary Fig. 1. Raw figure of the cluster analysis presented in Figure 9A. BLOSUM62 cluster map of somatostatin precursors. Nodes correspond to the precursors and are colored according to the key. Edges correspond to BLAST connections of P value >1e-20. The names of the sequences are included in the figure (TIF 1542 KB)

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Sobrido-Cameán, D., Yáñez-Guerra, L.A., Deber, A. et al. Differential expression of somatostatin genes in the central nervous system of the sea lamprey. Brain Struct Funct 226, 1031–1052 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02224-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-021-02224-9

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