Transcriptome analysis of Chinese mitten crabs (Eriocheir sinensis) gills in response to ammonia stress

Abstract

Abstract Background Chinese mitten crabs (Eriocheir sinensis) are an important aquatic economic species in Chinese. E. sinensis is a common farmed species in rice crab symbiosis which is an important ecological farming model. However, E. sinensis will be exposed to high ammonia environment due to the application of nitrogen fertilizers which are essential to rice growth. We investigated the molecular mechanisms of E. sinensis exposed to high ammonia through histopathological evaluation and transcriptomic analyses. Methods and Results We assigned E. sinensis into two groups randomly (control group, CG; ammonia stress group, AG), and gill samples were respectively extracted from CG and AG for histopathological evaluation and transcriptome analysis. Histopathological evaluation revealed that ammonia stress caused damage to the gills of E. sinensis. Transcriptome analysis showed that some essential genes (Xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH), Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L3 (UCHL3), O-Linked N-Acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT), Cathepsin B (CTSB) and Ubiquitin conjugating enzyme E2 W (UBE2W)) which are related to ammonia detoxification, immune response and apoptosis altered significantly. Conclusions The study demonstrated the molecular response mechanism of E. sinensis in response to ammonia stress, provided wider slight for further study in the molecular mechanism of ammonia stress in crustaceans and supplied technical support for rice crab symbiosis.