Transcriptome analysis reveals antioxidant defense mechanisms in the red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkia after exposure to chromium

• Published in: Ecotoxicology and environmental safety 2021-12, Vol.227, p.112911-112911, Article 112911
• Main Authors: Liu, Qiu-Ning, Tang, Ying-Yu, Zhao, Jing-Ru, Li, Yue-Tian, Yang, Rui-Ping, Zhang, Dai-Zhen, Cheng, Yong-Xu, Tang, Bo-Ping, Ding, Feng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antioxidant defense mechanisms; Differentially expressed genes; Hemocytes; Procambarus clarkii
• ISSN: 0147-6513; 1090-2414
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2021.112911

Chromium (Cr) as a chromate anion has a strong redox capacity that seriously threatens the ecological environment and human health. Cr can contaminate water and impart toxicity to aquatic species. Procambarus clarkii is an important food source that once represented a large proportion of the aquaculture industry due to its rapid reproduction and high economic value. However, there have been reports on the death of P. clarkii due to heavy metal pollution. The underlying mechanism regarding heavy metal toxicity was studied in this paper. The transcriptome data of hemocytes extracted from P. clarkii injected with Cr were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing and compared to the control group. In total, 48,128,748 clean reads were obtained in the treatment group and 56,480,556 clean reads were obtained in the control group. The reads were assembled using Trinity and the identified unigenes were then annotated. Then, 421 differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) were found, 170 of which were upregulated and 251 downregulated. Many of these genes were found to be related to glutathione metabolism and transportation. The glutathione metabolic pathway of P. clarkii was thus activated by Cr exposure to detoxify and maintain body function. Validation of DEGs with quantitative real-time PCR confirms the changes in gene expression. Thus, this study provides data supporting a glutathione-focused response of P. clarkii to exposure to heavy metals. •The hemocytes transcriptomes of Procambarus clarkii were constructed using high-throughput sequencing.•Totally 421 DGEs were identified including 170 up- and 251 down-regulated unigenes.•The qRT-PCR results of the transcriptome validation candidate gene are consistent with the transcriptome.