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. 2015 Jul 6;10(7):e0131503.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131503. eCollection 2015.

Transcriptome and Molecular Pathway Analysis of the Hepatopancreas in the Pacific White Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei under Chronic Low-Salinity Stress

Ke Chen  1 , Erchao Li  1 , Tongyu Li  1 , Chang Xu  1 , Xiaodan Wang  1 , Heizhao Lin  2 , Jian G Qin  3 , Liqiao Chen  1
Affiliations

Transcriptome and Molecular Pathway Analysis of the Hepatopancreas in the Pacific White Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei under Chronic Low-Salinity Stress

Ke Chen et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei is a euryhaline penaeid species that shows ontogenetic adaptations to salinity, with its larvae inhabiting oceanic environments and postlarvae and juveniles inhabiting estuaries and lagoons. Ontogenetic adaptations to salinity manifest in L. vannamei through strong hyper-osmoregulatory and hypo-osmoregulatory patterns and an ability to tolerate extremely low salinity levels. To understand this adaptive mechanism to salinity stress, RNA-seq was used to compare the transcriptomic response of L. vannamei to changes in salinity from 30 (control) to 3 practical salinity units (psu) for 8 weeks. In total, 26,034 genes were obtained from the hepatopancreas tissue of L. vannamei using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 system, and 855 genes showed significant changes in expression under salinity stress. Eighteen top Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways were significantly involved in physiological responses, particularly in lipid metabolism, including fatty-acid biosynthesis, arachidonic acid metabolism and glycosphingolipid and glycosaminoglycan metabolism. Lipids or fatty acids can reduce osmotic stress in L. vannamei by providing additional energy or changing the membrane structure to allow osmoregulation in relevant organs, such as the gills. Steroid hormone biosynthesis and the phosphonate and phosphinate metabolism pathways were also involved in the adaptation of L. vannamei to low salinity, and the differential expression patterns of 20 randomly selected genes were validated by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). This study is the first report on the long-term adaptive transcriptomic response of L. vannamei to low salinity, and the results will further our understanding of the mechanisms underlying osmoregulation in euryhaline crustaceans.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Pathways of glycosphingolipid biosynthesis: lacto and neolacto series (ko00601).
The red frames represent the genes were up-regulated, while the green frames represent that the genes were down-regulated. The frames with both red and green indicate that these genes have more than one unigenes, and some of them were up-regulated, but others were down-regulated.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Pathways of glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis: keratan sulfate (ko00533).
The red line indicates that the genes were up-regulated.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Pathways of fatty-acid biosynthesis (ko00061).
The red frames represent the genes were up-regulated, while the green frames represent that the genes were down-regulated. The frames with both red and green indicate that these genes have more than one unigenes, and some of them were up-regulated, but others were down-regulated.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Pathways of fatty-acid elongation (ko00062).
The red frames represent the genes were up-regulated, while the green frames represent that the genes were down-regulated. The frames had both red and green indicated that these genes had more than one unigenes, and some of them were up-regulated, others were down-regulated.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Pathways of unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis (ko01040).
The red frames represent the genes were up-regulated, while the green frames represent that the genes were down-regulated. The frames with both red and green indicate that these genes had more than one unigenes, and some of them were up-regulated, but others were down-regulated.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Validation results of RNA-seq profiles by qPCR.
Fig 7
Fig 7. Relationship between the most influenced pathways and osmoregulation.
The dotted-line arrows are indirect effects, and solid-line arrows indicate direct influence.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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