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Heat shock protein 70 levels and post-harvest survival of eastern oysters following sublethal heat shock in the laboratory or conditioning in the field

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Cell Stress and Chaperones Aims and scope

Abstract

A major problem of storing and shipping eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) from the Northern Gulf of Mexico in summer and early fall is their elevated mortality. A study was therefore conducted to determine whether heat shocking the oysters or conditioning them to aerial exposure prior to harvest could reduce their mortality during cold storage. Increasing the levels of stress proteins in bivalves has been shown to reduce their mortality when exposed to additional stressors. In this study, the levels of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) proteins and cumulative mortality during cold storage, out of water, of market-sized oysters were measured, in summer, following (1) sublethal heat shocks (41 °C, 1 h) in the laboratory or (2) 3 weeks to 6 weeks of daily exposures to air (0 h, ~ 10 h, or ~ 18 h) in the field. In total, four heat shock and two aerial exposure studies were done. Consistently, heat shocks or 6 weeks of daily aerial exposures increased HSP70 levels in oysters but did not reduce their mortality during cold storage. Three weeks of daily aerial exposure did not increase HSP70 levels and only marginally reduced mortality; a significant reduction in cumulative mortality occurred in one of the aerial exposure studies after 7 days of cold storage (0 h [26%], ~ 18 h [8%]). In conclusion, upregulation of HSP70 proteins or aerial exposure during grow-out was not an effective tool in reducing the mortality of oysters harvested in summer and held in cold storage.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Yanli Li, Ton Sing Hong, and Yu Woen Chyi for their technical assistance in the laboratory and Dr. John Supan for providing oysters for the research.

Funding

This work was funded by the NOAA Gulf Oyster Industry Program through the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program grant no. NA16RG2249.

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  1. School of Animal Sciences, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

    Sandra M. Casas & Jerome F. La Peyre

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  1. Sandra M. Casas
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  2. Jerome F. La Peyre
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Correspondence to Sandra M. Casas.

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Casas, S.M., La Peyre, J.F. Heat shock protein 70 levels and post-harvest survival of eastern oysters following sublethal heat shock in the laboratory or conditioning in the field. Cell Stress and Chaperones 25, 369–378 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12192-019-01056-1

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