Identification and characterization of miRNAs in the gills of the mud crab (Scylla paramamosain) in response to a sudden drop in salinity

Abstract

BackgroundThe mud crab (Scylla paramamosain) is a euryhaline and commercially important species. MiRNAs participate in the regulation of many physiological activities.ResultsThe miRNA transcriptome of the gills of S. paramamosain was used to investigate the expression profiles of miRNAs in response to a sudden drop in salinity. In total, seven known miRNAs and 43 novel miRNAs were identified, with 18 differentially expressed small RNAs. Fourteen thousand nine hundred fifty-one differentially expressed miRNAs target genes were screened by prediction. GO analysis of differentially expressed miRNAs target genes indicated that 578 genes associated with cellular processes, 523 associated with metabolic processes, and 422 associated with single-organism processes were the most strongly affected by a sudden drop in salinity from 23‰ to 3‰. KEGG pathway analysis showed 14 pathways were related to amino acid metabolism, which plays an important role in osmoregulation. Besides, several pathways were associated with starch and sucrose metabolism (ko00500), glycosaminoglycan degradation (ko00531), and galactose metabolism (ko00052).ConclusionsS. paramamosain regulated osmotic pressure and energy balance by regulating target genes to adapt to a sudden changes in salinity. These results provided a basis for further investigations of miRNA-modulating networks underlying the osmoregulation of S. paramamosain.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-4981-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Identification and profiling of microRNAs responsive to cadmium toxicity in hepatopancreas of the freshwater crab Sinopotamon henanense

“…The miRNA sequencing pipelines yielded 10,387,853 and 9,687,351 clean reads in the experimental and control groups, respectively (Table 1). Consistent with most previous results [20–22, 24–26], the majority of the sequences were distributed in the 21–22 nt range (Fig. 1).…”

“…With the developments of high-throughput sequencing technologies, a large number of miRNA transcriptome profiles have been obtained and characterized in various crustaceans, such as P. trituberculatus [21, 22, 27], E. sinensis [20, 23, 25], and S. paramamosain [24, 26, 28, 29]. Furthermore, miRNAs have been demonstrated to be vital for regulating gene expression and several biological functions, such as growth regulation [21], metabolism processes [22], and responses to viral infection [24].…”

Integrative Proteomic and MicroRNA Analysis: Insights Into Mechanisms of Eyestalk Ablation-Induced Ovarian Maturation in the Swimming Crab Portunus trituberculatus

“…MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a group of small non-coding RNAs, function as key post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression by complementary binding to 3′ untranslated regions of their target mRNA, leading to mRNA destabilization, or protein translation blockage ( 13 , 14 ). They are involved in many fundamental biological processes, such as development, metabolism, cell proliferation, and signal transduction ( 15 – 17 ). Recent evidence has revealed that miRNAs are critical in ovarian development and maturation in decapod crustaceans.…”

Effects of salinity on the ions important and sodium‐potassium ATPase in osmoregulation, cortisol, amino acids, digestive and immune enzymes in Scylla paramamosain during indoor overwintering

“…Salinity is one of the most variable water quality factors (Chand et al., 2015) that can directly affect osmotic regulation (Setiarto, Strussmann, Takashima, Watanabe, & Yokota, 2015; Wang et al., 2018a, b; Wang, Wei, et al, 2019), hormone levels (cortisol) (Kiilerich, Kristiansen, & Madsen, 2007), and the immune and digestive enzyme activities (Wang & Chen, 2006) of aquatic organisms. Due to a stress response, aquatic animals will experience from internal physiological dysfunction, and their immune defence ability will be reduced (Gheisvandi, Hajimoradloo, Ghorbani, & Hoseinifar, 2015), thereby affecting their growth and survival.…”

“…Salinity is also one of the important environmental factors influencing overwintering in S. paramamosain (Zhen & Shao, 2001). S. paramamosain is a euryhaline crab (Wang, Tang, Wei, Lu, Mu, et al, 2018; Wang et al., 2018a, b; Wang, Wei, et al, 2019); however, previous studies on the effects of salinity on osmotic pressure, plasma cortisol, digestive, immunity and amino acid of crabs have mainly focused on a sharp change (Lu, Zhuang, Feng, Zhang, & Wang, 2011). However, there are few studies on the effects of long‐term gradual changes in salinity on S. paramamosain .…”