Insights into the immune transcriptome of the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei: tissue-specific expression profiles and transcriptomic responses to immune challenge.
Infectious disease constitutes a major obstacle to the sustainability of shrimp aquaculture worldwide and a significant threat to natural populations of shrimp and other crustacea. The study of the shrimp immune system, including the response to viral infection, has been hampered by a relative lack of molecular genetic information and of tools suitable for high-throughput assessment of gene expression. In this report, the generation of a cDNA microarray encompassing 2,469 putative unigenes expressed in gills, circulating hemocytes, and hepatopancreas of Litopenaeus vannamei is described. The unigenes printed on the microarray were derived from the analyses of 7,021 expressed sequence tags obtained from standard cDNA libraries as well as from libraries generated by suppression subtractive hybridization, after challenging shrimp with a variety of immune stimuli. The general utility of the cDNA microarray was demonstrated by interrogating the array with labeled RNA from four different shrimp tissues (gills, hemocytes, hepatopancreas, and muscle) and by analyzing the transcriptomic response of shrimp to a lethal challenge with white spot syndrome virus. Our results indicate that white spot syndrome virus infection upregulates (in the hepatopancreas) genes encoding known and potential antimicrobial effectors, while some genes involved in protection from oxidative stress were found to be downregulated by the virus.
Robalino
Javier
J
Marine Biomedicine and Environmental Sciences Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Hollings Marine Laboratory, Charleston, South Carolina 29412, USA.
Almeida
Jonas S
JS
McKillen
David
D
Colglazier
Joan
J
Trent
Harold F
HF
Chen
Yian Ann
YA
Peck
Megan E T
ME
Browdy
Craig L
CL
Chapman
Robert W
RW
Warr
Gregory W
GW
Gross
Paul S
PS
D000818:Animals; D017756:Aquaculture; D017931:DNA Primers; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000276:immunology*; D005880:Gills / Q000378:metabolism; D006434:Hemocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D043143:Hepatopancreas / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D009132:Muscles / Q000378:metabolism; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000502:physiology; D033561:Penaeidae / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000821:virology*; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D046848:White spot syndrome virus 1
D017931:DNA Primers