Isolation and Characterization of Three Sodium-Phosphate Cotransporter Genes and Their Transcriptional Regulation in the Grass Carp <i>Ctenopharyngodon idella</i>

• Main Authors: Mei-Qin Zhuo, Wu-Hong Lv, Yi-Huan Xu, Zhi Luo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-11-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: phosphorus transporter; transcriptional regulation; phosphorus homeostasis; vertebrates
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/21/8228

It is important to explore the regulatory mechanism of phosphorus homeostasis in fish, which help avoid the risk of P toxicity and prevent P pollution in aquatic environment. The present study obtained the full-length cDNA sequences and the promoters of three SLC20 members (<i>slc20a1a</i>, <i>slc20a1b</i> and <i>slc20a2</i>) from grass carp <i>Ctenopharyngodon idella</i>, and explored their responses to inorganic phosphorus (Pi). Grass carp SLC20s proteins possessed conservative domains and amino acid sites relevant with phosphorus transport. The mRNAs of three <i>slc20s</i> appeared in the nine tissues, but their expression levels were tissue-dependent. The binding sites of three transcription factors (SREBP1, NRF2 and VDR) were predicted on the <i>slc20s</i> promoters. The mutation and EMSA analysis indicated that: (1) SREBP1 binding site (−783/−771 bp) negatively but VDR (−260/−253 bp) binding site positively regulated the activities of <i>slc20a1a</i> promoter; (2) SREBP1 (−1187/−1178 bp), NRF2 (−572/−561 bp) and VDR(615/−609 bp) binding sites positively regulated the activities of <i>slc20a1b</i> promoter; (3) SREBP1 (−987/−977 bp), NRF2 (−1469/−1459 bp) and VDR (−1124/−1117 bp) binding sites positively regulated the activities of the <i>slc20a2</i> promoter. Moreover, Pi incubation significantly reduced the activities of three <i>slc20s</i> promoters, and Pi-induced transcriptional inactivation of <i>slc20s</i> promoters abolished after the mutation of the VDR element but not SREBP1 and NRF2 elements. Pi incubation down-regulated the mRNA levels of three <i>slc20s</i>. For the first time, our study elucidated the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of SLC20s and their responses to Pi, which offered new insights into the Pi homeostatic regulation and provided the basis for reducing phosphorus discharge into the waters.