Effects of seawater acidification and warming on morphometrics and biomineralization-related gene expression during embryo-larval development of a lightly-calcified echinoderm

CO2-induced ocean acidification and warming pose ecological threats to marine life, especially calcifying species such as echinoderms, who rely on biomineralization for skeleton formation. However, previous studies on echinoderm calcification amid climate change had a strong bias towards heavily cal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental Research
Main Authors: Song, Mingshan, Huo, Da, Pang, Lei, Yu, Zhenglin, Yang, Xiaolong, Zhang, Anguo, Zhao, Ye, Zhang, Libin, Yuan, Xiutang
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE 2024
Subjects:
Less-calcified echinoderm
Apostichopus japonicus
Climate change
Biomineralization
Gene expression
Embryo -larval development
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Public
Environmental & Occupational Health
Environmental Sciences
CUCUMBER APOSTICHOPUS-JAPONICUS
SEA-URCHIN
OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
CALCIFICATION
TEMPERATURE
IMPACTS
LOGIC
Ocean acidification
Online Access:http://ir.qdio.ac.cn/handle/337002/184696
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.118248
Description
Summary:CO2-induced ocean acidification and warming pose ecological threats to marine life, especially calcifying species such as echinoderms, who rely on biomineralization for skeleton formation. However, previous studies on echinoderm calcification amid climate change had a strong bias towards heavily calcified echinoderms, with little research on lightly calcified ones, such as sea cucumbers. Here, we analyzed the embryo-larval development and their biomineralization-related gene expression of a lightly calcified echinoderm, the sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus), under experimental seawater acidification (OA) and/or warming (OW). Results showed that OA (- 0.37 units) delayed development and decreased body size (8.58-56.25 % and 0.36-19.66 % decreases in stage duration and body length, respectively), whereas OW (+3.1 degrees C) accelerated development and increased body size (33.99-55.28 % increase in stage duration and 2.44-14.41 % enlargement in body length). OW buffered the negative effects of OA on the development timing and body size of A. japonicus. Additionally, no target genes were expressed in the blastula stage, and only two biomineralization genes (colp3 alpha, cyp2) and five TFs (erg, tgif, foxN2/3, gata1/2/3, and tbr) were expressed throughout the embryo-larval development. Our findings suggest that the low calcification in A. japonicus larvae may be caused by biomineralization genes contraction, and low expression of those genes. Furthermore, this study indicated that seawater acidification and warming affect expression of biomineralization-related genes, and had an effect on body size and development rate during the embryo-larval stage in sea cucumbers. Our study is a first step toward a better understanding of the complexity of high pCO(2) on calcification and helpful for revealing the adaptive strategy of less-calcified echinoderms amid climate change.

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