Testicular germ cells of channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, and blue catfish, I. furcatus were separated into four layers with Percoll density gradient centrifugation, containing different cell types (40% in the first layer were spermatogonial stem cells, SSCs). Expression of seventeen genes was analyzed for cells from different layers by real-time quantitative PCR. Pfkfb4, Urod, Plzf, Integrin6, IntegrinV, Thy1 and Cdh1 genes showed the same expression change pattern in both channel and blue catfish as these genes were down-regulated in the spermatocytes and even more so in spermatids. Plzf and Integrin6 had especially high expression in SSCs and can be used as SSCs specific markers. Sox2 gene was up-regulated in spermatocytes and even more highly up-regulated in spermatids, which indicated it could be a spermatid marker. In contrast to channel catfish, Id4, Smad5 and Prdm14 gene expressions were strongly down-regulated in spermatocyte cells, but up-regulated in spermatid cells in blue catfish. Smad5 gene was down-regulated in spermatocytes, but up-regulated in both spermatogonia and spermatids, allowing identification as a marker for spermatocytes in blue catfish. Oct4, Id4, Gfrα2, Pum2 and Prdm14 genes showed different expression patterns in the testicular germ cells of channel and blue catfish. This may be a partial explanation to the differing responses of channel catfish and blue catfish to induced spawning technologies. The SSCs specific markers can be used for further SSCs labeling, which can increase the SSCs sorting efficiency and be applied in various studies involving SSCs and other germ cells.
Keywords: Catfish; Density gradient centrifugation; Gene expression; Marker gene; Spermatogonia stem cell.