title: Uncovering Hemocyanin Subunit Heterogeneity in Penaeid Shrimp using RNA-Seq.
abstract: Aquatic crustaceans can experience low levels of O2alone but more often in combination with high levels of CO2both in natural estuaries and in aquaculture ponds. Hemocyanin, the respiratory pigment in many crustacean species, facilitates O2transport and is documented to change in abundance, structure, and function in response to low O2The impacts of high CO2on the respiratory pigment are less clear. In this synthesis we bring together data from recently published and new RNA-Seq studies toward the aims of defining the full repertoire of hemocyanin subunits, as well as their differential expression and regulation in the Penaeoidea family in response to low O2with or without high CO2RNA-Seq data were collected from the hepatopancreas tissues of aquacultured Pacific whiteleg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei, wild-caught L. vannamei, and wild-caught Atlantic brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus aztecus. De novo assembly yielded high-quality stranded transcriptomes. Manual curation of the hemocyanin subunits from all three groups of penaeid shrimp confirmed the existence of a small γ-type hemocyanin subunit (HcS), greater sequence diversity in the large γ-type hemocyanin subunit than previously identified (HcL1-3 isoforms) and expression of a β-type hemocyanin subunit (HcB) previously unidentified in Penaeid shrimp. Relative abundance of transcripts encoding these hemocyanin isoforms differed within and among the three species/strains. Exposure to low O2induced expression of all of the subunits in aquacultured L. vannamei With concurrent exposure to high CO2, the number of γ-type hemocyanin transcripts decreased while the expression of β-type transcripts remained unchanged. Together with functional data for hemocyanins in the same shrimp species/strains, the RNA-Seq approach shows great promise to provide new insights into the connection between sequence, protein structure, and physiological function of respiratory pigments in this decapod crustacean family.
authors.affiliation: Grice Marine Laboratory, College of Charleston, and Hollings Marine Laboratory, 205 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA.
authors.forename: Jillian G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Grice Marine Laboratory, College of Charleston, and Hollings Marine Laboratory, 205 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA burnettk@cofc.edu.
authors.forename: Louis E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Burnett
authors.affiliation: Grice Marine Laboratory, College of Charleston, and Hollings Marine Laboratory, 205 Fort Johnson Road, Charleston, SC 29412, USA burnettk@cofc.edu.
authors.forename: Karen G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Burnett
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006433:Hemocyanins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D033561:Penaeidae / Q000235:genetics*; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D012313:RNA; D006433:Hemocyanins