Regulation of insulin gene expression and insulin production in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

Compared to mammals, little is known about insulin gene expression in fish. Using transient transfection experiments and mammalian insulinoma cell lines we demonstrate that transcription of the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) insulin gene is (a) regulated in a β-cell-specific manner; and (b) not sensitive to the glucose stimulations. Deletion analysis of the 1575 bp 5′ insulin gene flanking sequence revealed that cooperative interactions between regulatory elements within the proximal (−1 to −396 bp) and the distal (−396 bp to −1575 bp) promoter regions were necessary for induction of the β-cell-specific transcription. Effects of glucose and arginine on endogenous insulin secretion, translation, and transcription in isolated tilapia Brockmann bodies were determined using Northern hybridization, Western analysis, and quantitative RT-PCR. Similar to the regulation of mammalian insulin, we found that increases of glucose (1–70 mM) and arginine (0.4–25 mM) induced insulin secretion. However, transcription of the insulin gene was activated only by extremely high concentrations of glucose and arginine added simultaneously. When stimulated for 24 h with low concentrations of both inducers or with either of them added separately, tilapia β-cells were able to replenish secreted insulin and to maintain insulin stores at a constant level without elevations of the insulin mRNA levels. Since the basal level of insulin mRNA was approximately 3.7-fold higher in tilapia β-cells than it is in mammalian β-cells, insulin production in tilapia cells probably relies on an enlarged intracellular insulin mRNA pool and does not require the transcriptional activation of the insulin gene.