Abstract
The Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) is an important cultured crustacean species worldwide. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism of this species involved in the response to cold stress. In this study, four separate RNA-Seq libraries of L. vannamei were generated from 13°C stress and control temperature. Total 29,662 of Unigenes and overall of 19,619 annotated genes were obtained. Three comparisons were carried out among the four libraries, in which 72 of the top 20% of differentially-expressed genes were obtained, 15 GO and 5 KEGG temperature-sensitive pathways were fished out. Catalytic activity (GO: 0003824) and Metabolic pathways (ko01100) were the most annotated GO and KEGG pathways in response to cold stress, respectively. In addition, Calcium, MAPK cascade, Transcription factor and Serine/threonine-protein kinase signal pathway were picked out and clustered. Serine/threonine-protein kinase signal pathway might play more important roles in cold adaptation, while other three signal pathway were not widely transcribed. Our results had summarized the differentially-expressed genes and suggested the major important signaling pathways and related genes. These findings provide the first profile insight into the molecular basis of L. vannamei response to cold stress.
Highlights
The Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, is one of the most important cultural shrimp species, and its production has reached nearly 71% of the total economic penaeid shrimp production worldwide [1, 2, 3, 4]
We found that the muscle tissues of L. vannamei turned whitish immediately when they were chilled in low temperature water, but regained pellucidity after being returned to the control temperature, indicating that the muscle tissues of L. vannamei may process overt physiology activities in response to acute cold stress
The results showed that L. vannamei could not survive when treated with 11 ̊C or lower temperatures, the survival rates were slightly affected in the water at 14 ̊C, 15 ̊C or higher temperatures (Fig 1B)
Summary
The Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, is one of the most important cultural shrimp species, and its production (by weight) has reached nearly 71% of the total economic penaeid shrimp production worldwide [1, 2, 3, 4]. L. vannamei can inhabit estuaries, lagoons or marine areas, but they are sensitive to low temperatures [1]. Transcriptomic analyses of shrimp muscle under cold stress (A201601A03), the National High Technology Research & Development Program of China (863 Program) (2012AA10A404-4), and the Science and Technology Service Network Initiative of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KFJ-SW-STS-146). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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