Down-Regulation of Lipid Metabolism in the Hepatopancreas of Shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei upon Light and Heavy Infection of Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei : A Comparative Proteomic Study

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 23; no. 19; p. 11574
• Main Authors: Wu, Yujiao, Chen, Jie, Liao, Guoli, Hu, Mengjiao, Zhang, Qing, Meng, Xianzhi, Li, Tian, Long, Mengxian, Fan, Xiaodong, Yu, Qing, Zhang, Liping, Pan, Guoqing, Zhou, Zeyang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 30.09.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Adenosine triphosphate; alpha-Linolenic Acid; Amino Acids; Animals; Biosynthesis; Down-Regulation; Economic impact; Elongation; Energy metabolism; Enterocytozoon; Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei; Fatty acids; Hepatopancreas; Hormones; Infections; Juvenile Hormones; Linolenic acid; Lipid Metabolism; Lipids; Litopenaeus vannamei; Metabolism; Metabolites; Microsporidiosis; Oxidation; Pathogenesis; Pathogens; Pattern analysis; Penaeidae; Proteins; proteomic; Proteomics; Shrimps; Sphingolipids; Thailand; proteomic; Litopenaeus vannamei; Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei; lipid metabolism
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms231911574

Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) is the pathogen of hepatopancreatic microsporidiosis (HPM) in shrimp. The diseased shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei exhibits a slow growth syndrome, which causes severe economic losses. Herein, 4D label-free quantitative proteomics was employed to analyze the hepatopancreas of L. vannamei with a light (EHPptp2 < 103 copies/50 ng hpDNA, L group) and heavy (EHPptp2 > 104 copies/50 ng hpDNA, H group) load of EHP to better understand the pathogenesis of HPM. Exactly 786 (L group) and 1056 (H group) differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) versus the EHP-free (C group) control were mainly clustered to lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and energy production processing. Compared with the L group, the H group exhibited down-regulation significantly in lipid metabolism, especially in the elongation and degradation of fatty acid, biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acid, metabolism of α-linolenic acid, sphingolipid, and glycerolipid, as well as juvenile hormone (JH) degradation. Expression pattern analysis showed that the degree of infection was positively correlated with metabolic change. About 479 EHP proteins were detected in infected shrimps, including 95 predicted transporters. These findings suggest that EHP infection induced the consumption of storage lipids and the entire down-regulation of lipid metabolism and the coupling energy production, in addition to the hormone metabolism disorder. These were ultimately responsible for the stunted growth.