title: Transcriptome Analysis of the Hepatopancreas in the Pacific White Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) under Acute Ammonia Stress.
abstract: In the practical farming of Litopenaeus vannamei, the intensive culture system and environmental pollution usually results in a high concentration of ammonia, which usually brings large detrimental effects to shrimp, such as increasing the susceptibility to pathogens, reducing growth, decreasing osmoregulatory capacity, increasing the molting frequency, and even causing high mortality. However, little information is available on the molecular mechanisms of the detrimental effects of ammonia stress in shrimp. In this study, we performed comparative transcriptome analysis between ammonia-challenged and control groups from the same family of L. vannamei to identify the key genes and pathways response to ammonia stress. The comparative transcriptome analysis identified 136 significantly differentially expressed genes that have high homologies with the known proteins in aquatic species, among which 94 genes are reported potentially related to immune function, and the rest of the genes are involved in apoptosis, growth, molting, and osmoregulation. Fourteen GO terms and 6 KEGG pathways were identified to be significantly changed by ammonia stress. In these GO terms, 13 genes have been studied in aquatic species, and 11 of them were reported potentially involved in immune defense and two genes were related to molting. In the significantly changed KEGG pathways, all the 7 significantly changed genes have been reported in shrimp, and four of them were potentially involved in immune defense and the other three were related to molting, defending toxicity, and osmoregulation, respectively. In addition, majority of the significantly changed genes involved in nitrogen metabolisms that play an important role in reducing ammonia toxicity failed to perform the protection function. The present results have supplied molecular level support for the previous founding of the detrimental effects of ammonia stress in shrimp, which is a prerequisite for better understanding the molecular mechanism of the immunosuppression from ammonia stress.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Marine Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.|Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Marine Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.|Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Marine Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.|Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Luan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Marine Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.|Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Marine Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.|Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Xianhong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Marine Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.|Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Baoxiang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Marine Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.|Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266071, China.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D063990:Gene Ontology; D043143:Hepatopancreas / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism*; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D033561:Penaeidae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000641:Ammonia