Defense Responses to Short-term Hypoxia and Seawater Acidification in the Thick Shell Mussel Mytilus coruscus

The rising anthropogenic atmospheric CO results in the reduction of seawater pH, namely ocean acidification (OA). In East China Sea, the largest coastal hypoxic zone was observed in the world. This region is also strongly impacted by ocean acidification as receiving much nutrient from Changjiang and...

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Published inFrontiers in physiology Vol. 8; p. 145
Main Authors Sui, Yanming, Liu, Yimeng, Zhao, Xin, Dupont, Sam, Hu, Menghong, Wu, Fangli, Huang, Xizhi, Li, Jiale, Lu, Weiqun, Wang, Youji
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 09.03.2017
Subjects
Biological Sciences
Biologiska vetenskaper
byssus
defense response
hypoxia
mussel
Physiology
pH
hypoxia
mussel
defense response
byssus
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Summary:The rising anthropogenic atmospheric CO results in the reduction of seawater pH, namely ocean acidification (OA). In East China Sea, the largest coastal hypoxic zone was observed in the world. This region is also strongly impacted by ocean acidification as receiving much nutrient from Changjiang and Qiantangjiang, and organisms can experience great short-term natural variability of DO and pH in this area. In order to evaluate the defense responses of marine mussels under this scenario, the thick shell mussel were exposed to three pH/pCO levels (7.3/2800 μatm, 7.7/1020 μatm, 8.1/376 μatm) at two dissolved oxygen concentrations (DO, 2.0, 6.0 mg L ) for 72 h. Results showed that byssus thread parameters, such as the number, diameter, attachment strength and plaque area were reduced by low DO, and shell-closing strength was significantly weaker under both hypoxia and low pH conditions. Expression patterns of genes related to mussel byssus protein (MBP) were affected by hypoxia. Generally, hypoxia reduced MBP1 and MBP7 expressions, but increased MBP13 expression. In conclusion, both hypoxia and low pH induced negative effects on mussel defense responses, with hypoxia being the main driver of change. In addition, significant interactive effects between pH and DO were observed on shell-closing strength. Therefore, the adverse effects induced by hypoxia on the defense of mussels may be aggravated by low pH in the natural environments.
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This article was submitted to Aquatic Physiology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Physiology
Edited by: Pung P. Hwang, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Reviewed by: Marian Yong-An Hu, University of Kiel, Germany; Yung-Che Tseng, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
These authors have contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:1664-042X
1664-042X
DOI:10.3389/fphys.2017.00145