Comparative transcriptomic characterization of the early development in Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei.

Jiankai Wei,Fuhua Li,Jianhai Xiang,Yang Yu,Hao Huang,Xiaojun Zhang,Sebastian D Fugmann

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0106201

Abstract

Penaeid shrimp has a distinctive metamorphosis stage during early development. Although morphological and biochemical studies about this ontogeny have been developed for decades, researches on gene expression level are still scarce. In this study, we have investigated the transcriptomes of five continuous developmental stages in Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) with high throughput Illumina sequencing technology. The reads were assembled and clustered into 66,815 unigenes, of which 32,398 have putative homologues in nr database, 14,981 have been classified into diverse functional categories by Gene Ontology (GO) annotation and 26,257 have been associated with 255 pathways by KEGG pathway mapping. Meanwhile, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between adjacent developmental stages were identified and gene expression patterns were clustered. By GO term enrichment analysis, KEGG pathway enrichment analysis and functional gene profiling, the physiological changes during shrimp metamorphosis could be better understood, especially histogenesis, diet transition, muscle development and exoskeleton reconstruction. In conclusion, this is the first study that characterized the integrated transcriptomic profiles during early development of penaeid shrimp, and these findings will serve as significant references for shrimp developmental biology and aquaculture research.

Highlights

Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) is one of the most economically important marine aquaculture species and farmed widespread over the world [1]
As a member of Crustacea, it has a distinctive pattern for early development by passing through embryo, nauplius, zoea, mysis and postlarvae [2]
The researches about early development of L. vannamei are of considerable significance for both developmental biology and aquaculture in penaeid shrimp

Summary

Introduction

Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) is one of the most economically important marine aquaculture species and farmed widespread over the world [1]. As a member of Crustacea, it has a distinctive pattern for early development by passing through embryo, nauplius, zoea, mysis and postlarvae [2]. In embryo stage, it gets through the journey from zygote to 2 cell, 4 cell, blastula, gastrula, limb bud embryo and larva in membrane. After hatching from membrane, it experienced six nauplius stages, three zoea stages, three mysis stages and postlarvae stages before it becomes a juvenile shrimp (Figure 1). This pattern linked by metamorphosis is an important evolutionary and developmental transition and is a remarkable example of modularity in life cycles [3]. The researches about early development of L. vannamei are of considerable significance for both developmental biology and aquaculture in penaeid shrimp

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Conclusion