Early transcriptomic responses associated with the membrane-initiated action of cortisol in the skeletal muscle of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Cortisol is a critical neuroendocrine regulator of the stress response in fish. Cortisol practically affects all tissues by interacting with an intracellular receptor and modulating target gene expression. However, cortisol also interacts with components of the plasma membrane in a nongenomic process that activates rapid signaling. Until now, the implication of this novel cortisol signaling for the global transcriptional response has not been explored. In the present work, we evaluated the effects of the membrane-initiated actions of cortisol on the in vivo transcriptome of rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss) skeletal muscle. RNA-Seq analyses were performed to examine the transcriptomic changes in rainbow trout stimulated by physiological concentrations of cortisol and cortisol coupled with bovine serum albumin (cortisol-BSA), a membrane-impermeable analog of cortisol. A total of 660 million paired-ends reads were generated. Reads mapped onto the reference genome revealed that 1,737; 897; and 1,012 transcripts were differentially expressed after 1, 3, and 9 h of cortisol-BSA treatment, respectively. Gene Ontology analysis showed that this novel action of cortisol modulates several biological processes, such as mRNA processing, ubiquitin-dependent protein catabolic processes, and transcription regulation. In addition, a KEGG analysis revealed that focal adhesion was the main signaling pathway that was upregulated at all the times tested. Taking these results together, we propose that the membrane-initiated cortisol action contributes significantly in the regulation of stress-mediated gene expression.