Transcriptome assembly and expression profiling of molecular responses to cadmium toxicity in hepatopancreas of the freshwater crab Sinopotamon henanense

Abstract

Cadmium (Cd) pollution is a serious global problem, which causes irreversible toxic effects on animals. Freshwater crab, Sinopotamon henanense, is a useful environmental indicator since it is widely distributed in benthic habitats whereby it tends to accumulate Cd and other toxicants. However, its molecular responses to Cd toxicity remain unclear. In this study, we performed transcriptome sequencing and gene expression analyses of its hepatopancreas with and without Cd treatments. A total of 7.78 G clean reads were obtained from the pooled samples, and 68,648 unigenes with an average size of 622 bp were assembled, in which 5,436 were metabolism-associated and 2,728 were stimulus response-associated that include 380 immunity-related unigenes. Expression profile analysis demonstrated that most genes involved in macromolecular metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation, detoxification and anti-oxidant defense were up-regulated by Cd exposure, whereas immunity-related genes were down-regulated, except the genes involved in phagocytosis were up-regulated. The current data indicate that Cd exposure alters gene expressions in a concentration-dependent manner. Therefore, our results provide the first comprehensive S.henanense transcriptome dataset, which is useful for biological and ecotoxicological studies on this crab and its related species at molecular level, and some key Cd-responsive genes may provide candidate biomarkers for monitoring aquatic pollution by heavy metals.

Transcriptomic response to ammonia-N stress in the hepatopancreas of swimming crab Portunus trituberculatus

“…Compared with traditional sequencing technologies, next-generation sequencing technologies can provide a large amount of sequence data with a wider range and depth by spending less time and cost (Huse et al 2007). Recently, digital gene expression (DGE) analysis has become an effective and convenient method for monitoring differences in the transcriptomic response of tissues or organs under environmental stress in aquatic crustaceans, such as P. trituberculatus (Lv et al 2013), Eriocheir sinensis (Li et al 2013a;Sun et al 2014), Sinopotamon henanense (Sun et al 2016), Macrobrachium rosenbergii (Rao et al 2015), Procambarus clarkii (Shen et al 2014), Litopenaeus vannamei (Guo et al 2016) and Fenneropenaeus chinensis (Li et al 2013b). Lu et al (2016) performed a comparative transcriptome analysis of the hepatopancreas between controls and an ammoniatreated group of L. vannamei.…”

Transcriptome profiling analysis of rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus) gills after waterborne cadmium exposure

“…The decline of the anti-pathogen response was also confirmed by the significant downregulation of immunoglobulin, B and T cell receptors, F13A1, and TRIM21, which are key genes in the regulation of immune responses (Nikolajsen et al, 2014;Ozato et al, 2008). The down-regulation of immunity-related genes was also observed in Cd-treated freshwater crab hepatopancreas (Sun et al, 2016). In addition, the up-regulation of MHC class I is reportedly a diagnostic marker of inflammatory myopathies in humans (Salaroli et al, 2012).…”

“…The significant up-regulation of these genes detected in this study suggests the redox system of rare minnow gills is disrupted after sub-chronic waterborne Cd exposure. Oxidative phosphorylation and anti-oxidant defense-related genes have also been reported to be altered in the hepatopancreas of freshwater crab (Sinopotamon henanense) (Sun et al, 2016).…”

Transcriptome Profiling Analysis of Wolf Spider Pardosa pseudoannulata (Araneae: Lycosidae) after Cadmium Exposure

“…Notably, 724 genes were commonly regulated by the two concentrations of Cd stress (Figure 1B). Significantly, these DEGs could be used to discover genes responsive to Cd stress in the spider, and thereby to identify some biomarkers for monitoring heavy metal pollution [29]. …”

“…Two other genes in glutathione metabolism pathways, including 5-oxoprolinase, gamma-glutamyltransferase were detected and all up-regulated in TL vs. TC or TH vs. TC. CYP450 is another critical detoxification enzyme considered to be a biomarker in many animals [19,29]. A total of 35 DEGs of CYP450 families were found in TL vs. TC and TH vs. TC groups and most of them presented up-regulate (Table S3), and these molecules may be used as biomarkers to assess the toxic effects of heavy metals on terrestrial invertebrates.…”