Project description:Studying the adaptive divergence of shellfish inhabiting different environments is crucial to predict the resilience of marine organisms to rapid climate change. Although the shell serves as the primary physical barrier against environmental change, the evolutionary adaptation of biomineralization in shellfish remains poorly understood. In this study, we using common garden designs to investigate the shell matrix proteome of estuarine (Crassostrea ariakensis) and Pacific (Crassostrea gigas) oysters inhabiting estuarine and open coastal zones, respectively. Shell matrix proteome analyses revealed extensive domain expansion of classical pathway secretomes, which likely contribute to the enhanced biomineralization capacity of estuarine oysters. Furthermore, two-thirds of the 27 C. ariakensis-specific shell matrix-secreted proteins (SMSPs) lacked homology with known proteins in the Swiss-Prot and nr databases, indicating rapid evolution. Our findings suggest that intensified classical pathway secretomes and rapid evolution of species-specific SMSPs are key factors shaping the defense of shells to enhance their adaptive potential to climate change.
Project description:Low salinity is one of the main factors limiting the distribution and survival of marine species. As estuarine species, Crassostrea hongkongensis can live in relative low salinity. Through Illumina sequencing, we generated two transcriptomes with samples taken from gills of oysters exposed to the low salinity seawater versus the optimal seawater. By RNAseq technology, we found 13550 up-regulation genes and 9914 down-regulation genes that may regulate osmotic stress in C. hongkongensis. As blasted by GO annotation and KEGG pathway mapping, functional annotation of the genes recovered diverse biological functions and processes. The genes regulated significantly were dominated in structural molecule activity, intracellular,cytoplasm protein metabolism, biosynthesis,cell and transcription regulator activity according to GO annotation. The study aimed to compare the expression data of the two transcriptomes to provide some useful insights into signal transduction pathways in oysters and offer a number of candidate genes as potential markers of tolerance to hypoosmotic stress for oysters. In addition, the characterization of C. hongkongensis transcriptome will facilitate research into biological processes underlying physiological adaptations to hypoosmotic shock for marine invertebrates.
Project description:Deep sequencing of samples from different development stages, different adult organs and different stress treatments of Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas Samples of 38 developmental stages from egg to juvenile were analyzed using single-end 49 bp RNA-seq. Two libraries mixed by RNAs from different developmental stages were analyzed using paired-end 90 bp RNA-seq. A total of 11 samples mainly from 8 organs (mantle, gill,adductor muscle, digestive gland, hemocyte, labial palp, female gonad and male gonad) were analyzed using paired-end 90 bp RNA-seq. At the same time, single-end 49 bp RNA-seq was conducted on 61 samples collected from adult oysters subjected to 9 types of environmental stressors (exposure to air, salinity, temperature, and exposure to metals).