Comprehensive Sequencing of Environmental RNA from Japanese Medaka at
Various Size Fractions and Comparison with Skin RNA
Abstract
Environmental RNA (eRNA) is emerging as a non-invasive tool for
assessing the health of macro-organisms, but key information on its
origin and particle sizes remains unclear. In this study, we performed
comprehensive RNA-sequencing of eRNA (> 13 Gb/sample)
collected from tank water containing Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes),
using sequential filtration through filters with pore sizes of 10, 3,
and 0.4 μm. Fish skin RNA was also sequenced to reveal the origin of
eRNA. Our results showed that the 3−10 μm fraction contained the lowest
relative abundance of microbial RNA, the highest amount of medaka eRNA,
and the largest number of detected medaka genes (5398 genes), while the
0.4−3 μm fraction had the fewest (972 genes). Only a small number of
genes (42 genes) were unique to the 0.4−3 μm fraction. These findings
suggest that a 3 μm filter is optimal for eRNA analysis, as it allows
for larger filtration volumes while maintaining the relative abundance
of macro-organism eRNA. Furthermore, 81% of the genes detected in eRNA
overlapped with skin RNA, indicating skin is a major source of fish
eRNA.