Transient ectopic overexpression of agouti-signalling protein 1 (asip1) induces pigment anomalies in flatfish.

While flatfish in the wild exhibit a pronounced countershading of the dorso-ventral pigment pattern, malpigmentation is commonly observed in reared animals. In fish, the dorso-ventral pigment polarity is achieved because a melanization inhibition factor (MIF) inhibits melanoblast differentiation and encourages iridophore proliferation in the ventrum. A previous work of our group suggested that asip1 is the uncharacterized MIF concerned. In order to further support this hypothesis, we have characterized asip1 mRNAs in both turbot and sole and used deduced peptide alignments to analyze the evolutionary history of the agouti-family of peptides. The putative asip precursors have the characteristics of a secreted protein, displaying a putative hydrophobic signal. Processing of the potential signal peptide produces mature proteins that include an N-terminal region, a basic central domain with a high proportion of lysine residues as well as a proline-rich region that immediately precedes the C-terminal poly-cysteine domain. The expression of asip1 mRNA in the ventral area was significantly higher than in the dorsal region. Similarly, the expression of asip1 within the unpigmented patches in the dorsal skin of pseudoalbino fish was higher than in the pigmented dorsal regions but similar to those levels observed in the ventral skin. In addition, the injection/electroporation of asip1 capped mRNA in both species induced long term dorsal skin paling, suggesting the inhibition of the melanogenic pathways. The data suggest that fish asip1 is involved in the dorsal-ventral pigment patterning in adult fish, where it induces the regulatory asymmetry involved in precursor differentiation into mature chromatophore. Adult dorsal pseudoalbinism seems to be the consequence of the expression of normal developmental pathways in an inaccurate position that results in unbalanced asip1 production levels. This, in turn, generates a ventral-like differentiation environment in dorsal regions.