Differential expression of Hypoxia-response genes in Mytilus galloprovincialis under experimental conditions

Abstract

Marine hypoxia has become one of the major concerns of aquatic environment in the last few decades. Monitoring the biological effects of hypoxia in aquatic system may provide useful data in management of natural aquatic environment. In this study, we investigated the response of the Mytilus galloprovincialis to hypoxia under experimental conditions. Total RNA was extracted using TRIzol® reagent method in gill after 0, 24, 48 and 72 hours exposure to hypoxia. Differential display polymerase chain reaction (DD-PCR) was carried out to identify gene candidates. As a result, we identified 130 differentially expressed genes and 74 genes were up-regulated and 56 genes were down-regulated during the hypoxia. These genes were implicated in the different pathways such as post-translational modification, protein turnover and chaperones; translation, ribosomal structure and biogenesis; signal transduction mechanisms; defense mechanisms; energy production and conversion; cytoskeleton; lipid transport and metabolism; replication, recombination and repair; extracellular structures; general function prediction; and unknown function based on KOG (Orthologous groups for eukaryotic complete genomes) classification. The present study contributes to the identification of many potential genetic biomarkers that could be used in hypoxia monitoring.