Effect of triazophos on the expression of H19 and Sox2OT genes in Danio rerio

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are defined as a class of RNA molecule with a length of over 200 nucleotides and without protein-coding function. On the exposure to environmental pollutants, dysregulated expression of lncRNAs has been observed, which is associated with several diseases such as cancer. A human-derived microarray was used to screen the zebrafish (Danio rerio) lncRNA of zebrafish after sublethal triazophos treatment. The miRNAs and their target genes were predicted by the bioinformatics software. Finally, real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR was used to verify their relative expression in zebrafish, so that a lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network was constructed. Results of real-time PCR showed that lncRNA Sox2OT was reduced by 35% after triazophos treatment compared with that of the control group. The expression of lncRNA H19 was up-regulated by 1.41-fold, while that of dre-let-7c was reduced by 78%. Furthermore, the expression of ddx18, which may be the target gene of dre-let-7c, was up-regulated by 2.11-fold. The difference was significant (P < 0.05). It's proposed that lncRNA H19 may interact with dre-let-7c as a competitive endogenous RNA to regulate the expression of ddx18 after the triazophos treatment. Therefore, lncRNA H19, dre-let-7c and ddx18 can be potentially used as biomarkers to monitor the effects of triazophos on the environment and organisms.