ORIGINAL ARTICLE Gene Expression Profiles of Spleen, Liver, and Head Kidney in Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) Along the Infection Process with Philasterides dicentrarchi Using an Immune- Enriched Oligo-Microarray Belén G. Pardo & Adrián Millán & Antonio Gómez-Tato & Carlos Fernández & Carmen Bouza & José Antonio Alvarez-Dios & Santiago Cabaleiro & Jesús Lamas & José M. Leiro & Paulino Martínez Received: 15 December 2011 / Accepted: 22 January 2012 / Published online: 26 February 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 Abstract We evaluated the expression profiles of turbot in spleen, liver, and head kidney across five temporal points of the Philasterides dicentrarchi infection process using an 8x15K Agilent oligo-microarray. The microarray included 2,176 different fivefold replicated gene probes designed from a turbot 3′ sequenced EST database. We were able to identify 221 differentially expressed (DE) genes (8.1% of the whole microarray), 113 in spleen, 83 in liver, and 90 in head kidney, in at least 1 of the 5 temporal points sampled for each organ. Most of these genes could be annotated (83.0%) and function- ally categorized using GO terms (69.1%) after the additional sequencing of DE genes from the 5′ end. Many DE genes were related to innate and acquired immune functions. A high proportion of DE genes were organ-specific (70.6%), although their associated GO functions showed notable similarities in the three organs. The most striking difference in functional distribution was observed between the up- and downregulated gene groups. Upregulated genes were mostly associated to immune functions, while downregulated ones mainly involved metabolism-related genes. Genetic response appeared clus- tered in a few groups of genes with similar expression profiles along the temporal series. The information obtained will aid to understand the turbot immune response and will specifically be valuable to develop strategies of defense to P . dicentrarchi to achieve more resistant broodstocks for turbot industry. Keywords Turbot . Scophthalmus maximus . Philasterides dicentrarchi . Oligo-microarray . Immune response . Functional classification Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10126-012-9440-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. B. G. Pardo : A. Millán : C. Fernández : C. Bouza : P. Martínez (*) Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Campus de Lugo, 27002 Lugo, Spain e-mail: paulino.martinez@usc.es A. Gómez-Tato Departamento de Geometría y Topología, Facultad de Matemáticas, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain J. A. Alvarez-Dios Departamento de Matemática Aplicada, Facultad de Matemáticas, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain S. Cabaleiro Cluster de la Acuicultura de Galicia (CETGA), Punta de Couso s/n, 15965 Aguiño (A Coruña), Spain J. Lamas Departamento de Biología Celular y Ecología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain J. M. Leiro Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología, Instituto de Investigación y Análisis Alimentarios, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain Mar Biotechnol (2012) 14:570–582 DOI 10.1007/s10126-012-9440-9