Meeting Abstract
79.1 Monday, Jan. 6 10:00 Respiratory properties of wild and aquacultured penaeid shrimp hemocyanin TOMMERDAHL, AP*; BURNETT, KG; BURNETT, LE; College of Charleston; College of Charleston; College of Charleston annatommerdahl@gmail.com
Respiratory properties of hemocyanin (Hc) are well documented within the crustacean subphylum, yet a gap remains in the literature regarding properties of Hc in penaeid shrimp. Understanding how Hc operates in this most basal extant group of decapod crustaceans is central to evaluating the evolution of Hc in derived species. Furthermore, it is important to characterize the effects of low O2 (hypoxia) on marine organisms since the size, intensity, and frequency of hypoxic zones continues to increase in nearshore marine habitats worldwide. The Atlantic white (Litopenaeus setiferus) and brown (Farfantepenaeus aztecus) shrimp are abundant in Charleston Harbor and provide a good model to study hypoxic effects as they inhabit routinely-hypoxic estuaries and they play important ecologic and economic roles. L. vannamei (Pacific whiteleg shrimp) is the most commonly aquacultured shrimp species worldwide, giving economic importance to understanding their ability to cope with hypoxia commonly found in aquaculture ponds. We evaluated Hc O2 binding properties and [Hc] among wild populations of these three species plus an aquaculture population of L. vannamei and found differences in O2 affinity between Atlantic and Pacific species (P50=1.6 kPa ±0.03 SEM Atlantic, 3.9±0.03 kPa Pacific, pH=7.4), and higher [Hc] in aquacultured L. vannamei relative to all wild populations (10.3±0.23g/100mL SEM vs. 7.0±0.5g/100mL in both wild L. vannamei and F. aztecus, and 8.0±0.2g/100mL in L. setiferus). Hc in all four populations appears to be extremely stable with regards to chronic hypoxia exposure, as derived crustaceans have been found to alter Hc O2 affinity in response to chronic hypoxia exposure, but we did not observe any alteration of this parameter after 30 days in hypoxia. (NSF IOS-1147008)
