Differential gene expression analysis for California yellowtail (Seriola dorsalis) to investigate slow- and fast-growing larvae over different growth stages

In this study, we describe the generation of whole larval transcriptomes for the California yellowtail (S. dorsalis) at three developmental stages: two, seven, and seventeen days post hatching (dph) using RNA-Seq on the Illumina HiSeq 2500 sequencing platform. Transcriptional profiles and differential gene expression were also investigated for slow- and fast-growing larvae over these same stages. Overall design: Yellowtail larvae were sampled opportunistically at 2, 7, and 17 dph with three replicates for each time point; the replicates within each time point were sampled from separate spawning events.