The metabolomics provides insights into the Pacific abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) response to low temperature stress

Abstract

The low temperatures in winter, particularly the cold spells in recent years, have posed significant threats to China's abalone aquaculture industry. The low temperature tolerance of cultured abalone has drawn plenty of attention, but the metabolic response of abalone to low-temperature stress remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the metabolomic analysis of Pacific abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) during low-temperature stress. Pacific abalone used two strains of cultured abalone, namely the bottom-sowing cultured strain (DB) and the longline cultured strain (FS), which had different histories of low-temperature acclimation. The results revealed that eight of the top 10 shared differential expression metabolites of the two strains were carbohydrates. According to the results of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) metabolic pathway analysis, low-temperature stress primarily affected several metabolic pathways. These pathways include ABC transporters, carbohydrate digestion and absorption, starch and sucrose metabolism, lysine degradation, TCA cycle, the phosphotransferase system, the glucagon signaling pathway and pyruvate metabolism. The results suggest that Pacific abalone primarily regulates the expression of carbohydrates to enhance energy supply and anti-freezing protection. These findings are crucial for understanding the mechanism of low-temperature tolerance in Pacific abalone, and can help optimize culture strategies for high-quality abalone aquaculture development.

Keywords: Climate change; Haliotis discus hannai; Low temperature stress; Metabolomics.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

(A) PCA analysis of overall samples in POS and (B) PCA analysis of overall samples in NEG.

Fig. 2

(A) Volcano diagram of KBDB vs KBFS in POS; (B) Volcano diagram of KBDB vs KBFS in NEG; (C) Volcano diagram of SYDB vs KBDB in POS; (D) Volcano diagram of SYDB vs KBDB in NEG; (E) Volcano diagram of SYFS vs KBFS in POS; (F) Volcano diagram of SYFS vs KBFS in NEG; (G) Volcano diagram of SYDB vs SYFS in POS; (H) Volcano diagram of SYDB vs SYFS in NEG. The horizontal axis in the figure represents the logarithmic value of log₂ for the fold change, while the vertical axis represents the logarithmic value of - log₁₀ for the significance p value. Upregulated significant differential metabolites are represented in red, downregulated significant differential metabolites are represented in blue, and non-significant differential metabolites are represented in black. Volcano diagrams showed differential metabolites as FC > 1.5 or FC < 0.67, P < 0.05.

Fig. 3

(A) Venn diagram of overall samples in POS and (B) Venn diagram of overall samples in NEG.

Fig. 4

Bubble diagram of metabolic pathways associated with differential metabolites (A) SYDB vs KBDB; (B) SYFS vs KBFS; (C) SYDB vs SYFS. Each bubble in the bubble map represents a metabolic pathway (the top 20 most significant ones were selected), and the size of the bubble is proportional to the impact value of the pathway in the topological analysis; the colour of the bubble indicates the degree of significance, the more colourful the bubble is, the smaller the P-value is, and the more significant the degree of enrichment is; the rich factor represents the number of differential metabolites of the pathway as a percentage of the number of metabolites annotated in the pathway.

Fig. 5

Differential metabolite-related metabolic pathway differential abundance score map. (A) SYDB vs KBDB; (B) SYFS vs KBFS; (C) SYDB vs SYFS.

Fig. 6

Predictive model of the metabolic response of Pacific abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) to low-temperature stress.

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