Stress-induced gene expression profiling in the black tiger shrimp <i>Penaeus monodon</i>

Cultured shrimp are continuously exposed to variable environmental conditions that have been associated with stress and subsequent outbreaks of disease. To investigate the effect of environmental stress on Penaeus monodon gene expression, a 3,853 random cDNA microarray chip was generated with clones originating from six stress-enriched hemocyte libraries generated by suppression subtractive hybridization and a normal hemocyte cDNA library. Changes in temporal gene expression were analyzed from shrimp exposed to hypoxic, hyperthermic, and hypoosmotic conditions; 3.1% of the cDNAs were differentially expressed in response to at least one of the environmental stressors, and 72% of the differentially expressed clones had no significant sequence similarity to previously known genes. Among those genes with high identity to known sequences, the most common functional groups were immune-related genes and non-long terminal repeat retrotransposons. Hierarchical clustering revealed a set of cDNAs with temporal and stress-specific gene expression profiles as well as a set of cDNAs indicating a common stress response between stressors. Hypoxic and hyperthermic stressors induced the most severe short-term response in terms of gene regulation, and the osmotic stress had the least variation in expression profiles relative to the control. These expression data agree with observed differences in shrimp physical appearance and behavior following exposure to stress conditions.