Hemolymph and transcriptome analysis to understand innate immune responses to hypoxia in Pacific abalone

Publication date: Available online 6 February 2019Source: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D: Genomics and ProteomicsAuthor(s): Yawei Shen, Zekun Huang, Guangmou Liu, Caihuan Ke, Weiwei YouAbstractHypoxia was thought to inhibit immune responses, causing severe mortality to marine organisms. The Pacific abalone, Haliotis discus hannai, is the most widely cultured abalone species in China, but suffering from “summer mortality” in which hypoxia has been one of the main reasons. The effect of hypoxia exposure on immune responses in H. discus hannai was investigated, including cellular immune response using flow cytometry and transcriptome profiles. The influence of hypoxia treatment on the total hemocyte count (THC) of H. discus hannai was rather limited but the hemocyte survival rate of abalone increased during 48 h exposure. There was an initial rise in the production of phagocytes and reactive oxygen species (ROS) shortly (3 h) after hypoxic stimulation, but finally decreased after 48 h. This indicates that hypoxia inhibited redox activity of abalone. RNA-seq studies of gill tissues also revealed immune response mechanism in abalone after 24 h of hypoxia. Totally 954 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected under different degrees of deoxygenation. Though oxidation-reduction turbulence was a result of both up- and down-regulated DEGs, cell death/apoptosis induction resulted from up-regulated DEGs, whilst DNA metabolic and immunity suppression...
Source: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D: Genomics and Proteomics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: research