Molecular genetic response to varied wavelengths of light in Xiphophorus maculatus skin

Xiphophorus fishes represent a model often utilized to study UVB induced tumorigenesis. Recently, varied genetic responses to UVB exposure have been documented in the skin of female and male Xiphophorus, as have differences in UVB response in the skin of different parental species and for interspecies hybrids produced from crossing them. Additionally, it has been shown that exposure to “cool white” fluorescent light induces a shift in the genetic profiles of Xiphophorus skin that is nearly as robust as the UVB response, but involves a fundamentally different set of genes. Given these results and the use of Xiphophorus interspecies hybrids as an experimental model for UVB inducible melanoma, it is of interest to characterize genes that may be transcriptionally modulated in a wavelength specific manner.The global molecular genetic response of skin upon exposure of the intact animal to specific wavelengths of light has not been investigated. Herein, we report results of RNA-Seq experiments from the skin of male Xiphophorus maculatus Jp 163 B following exposure to varied 50 nm wavelengths of light ranging from 300–600 nm. We identify two specific wavelength regions, 350–400 nm (88 genes) and 500–550 nm (276 genes), that exhibit transcriptional modulation of a significantly greater number of transcripts than any of the other 50 nm regions in the 300–600 nm range. Observed functional sets of genes modulated within these two transcriptionally active light regions suggest different mechanisms of gene modulation.