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Role of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor α in Response to Hypoxia and Heat Shock in the Pacific Oyster Crassostrea gigas

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Abstract

The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas inhabits the intertidal zone and shows tolerance to stress conditions such as hypoxia and heat shock. Although some information is available about the genes expressed in response to hypoxia, little is known about the molecular mechanism of the regulation of their expression in mollusks, including the Pacific oyster. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) is a master regulator of hypoxia-responsive transcription. In this study, we cloned HIF-α from the oyster and investigated its response to unique stress conditions, including air exposure, for the first time in mollusks. The cDNA of oyster Hif-α is 3,182 bp long, of which 2,094 bp encodes a protein of 698 amino acid residues. Northern and Western blot analysis showed that expression of oyster HIF-α mRNA and protein were induced by air exposure, and that expression was induced periodically during air exposure. In addition, induction of Hif-α mRNA increased by a maximum 8.0-fold by heat shock. Under heat shock at 35°C (lethal temperature for the oyster), however, it was induced later than at 30°C. After recovery from hypoxia and/or heat shock, Hif-α mRNA also upregulated. These data suggest that the oyster has a strategy to induce Hif-α mRNA in order to survive hypoxia and heat shock, and that HIF signaling is necessary for recovery from stress.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (218563) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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  1. Shinya Kawabe

    Present address: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, Eiheiji, Fukui, 910-1193, Japan

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  1. Department of Marine Bioscience, Faculty of Marine Bioscience, Fukui Prefectural University, Obama, Fukui, 917-0003, Japan

    Shinya Kawabe & Yoshihiro Yokoyama

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Kawabe, S., Yokoyama, Y. Role of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor α in Response to Hypoxia and Heat Shock in the Pacific Oyster Crassostrea gigas . Mar Biotechnol 14, 106–119 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-011-9394-3

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