Transcriptomic Responses of a Lightly Calcified Echinoderm to Experimental Seawater Acidification and Warming during Early Development

Ocean acidification (OA) and ocean warming (OW) are potential obstacles to the survival and growth of marine organisms, particularly those that rely on calcification. This study investigated the single and joint effects of OA and OW on sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus larvae raised under combinat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology
Main Authors: Zhao, Ye, Song, Mingshan, Yu, Zhenglin, Pang, Lei, Zhang, Libin, Karakassis, Ioannis, Dimitriou, Panagiotis D., Yuan, Xiutang
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2023
Subjects:
climate change
muti-stressor
sea cucumber
Apostichopus japonicus
transcriptomics
early development
Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics
Biology
LIFE-HISTORY STAGES
APOSTICHOPUS-JAPONICUS
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
TEMPERATURE
EXPRESSION
IMPACTS
MOLLUSK
CARBON
GENES
Ocean acidification
Online Access:http://ir.qdio.ac.cn/handle/337002/183649
https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12121520
Description
Summary:Ocean acidification (OA) and ocean warming (OW) are potential obstacles to the survival and growth of marine organisms, particularly those that rely on calcification. This study investigated the single and joint effects of OA and OW on sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus larvae raised under combinations of two temperatures (19 degrees C or 22 degrees C) and two pCO(2) levels (400 or 1000 mu atm) that reflect the current and end-of-21st-century projected ocean scenarios. The investigation focused on assessing larval development and identifying differences in gene expression patterns at four crucial embryo-larval stages (blastula, gastrula, auricularia, and doliolaria) of sea cucumbers, using RNA-seq. Results showed the detrimental effect of OA on the early development and body growth of A. japonicus larvae and a reduction in the expression of genes associated with biomineralization, skeletogenesis, and ion homeostasis. This effect was particularly pronounced during the doliolaria stage, indicating the presence of bottlenecks in larval development at this transition phase between the larval and megalopa stages in response to OA. OW accelerated the larval development across four stages of A. japonicus, especially at the blastula and doliolaria stages, but resulted in a widespread upregulation of genes related to heat shock proteins, antioxidant defense, and immune response. Significantly, the negative effects of elevated pCO(2) on the developmental process of larvae appeared to be mitigated when accompanied by increased temperatures at the expense of reduced immune resilience and increased system fragility. These findings suggest that alterations in gene expression within the larvae of A. japonicus provide a mechanism to adapt to stressors arising from a rapidly changing oceanic environment.

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