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Challenges to Crustacean Muscle Quality From Environmental and Operational Stresses: Performance, Mechanisms, and Management
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Researchers reviewed how a range of environmental and chemical stressors—including temperature, salinity, hypoxia, and microplastics—compromise crustacean muscle quality, detailing the underlying mechanisms of oxidative imbalance, energy metabolism disruption, and gene regulatory changes, and evaluating strategies from environmental optimization to nutritional management for maintaining seafood quality.
Crustaceans serve as a crucial source of high-quality protein, but their muscle quality and flavor are highly sensitive to environmental stress during aquaculture, processing, and transportation. Most existing studies have primarily focused on stress responses in gills, hepatopancreas, and intestines. In recent years, increasing attention has been directed toward stress-induced deterioration in crustacean muscle. The physiological regulation of crustaceans under stress involves complex processes such as signal transduction, gene expression, and energy metabolism, which are closely associated with muscle characteristics and form the mechanistic basis for subsequent quality and alterations. This review then systematically discusses the effects of major stressors, including temperature, salinity, hypoxia, ammonia, and dissolved oxygen, on muscle nutrition, texture, flavor, and structural integrity. In addition, chemical or nutritional stress, such as exposure to metals, pesticides, microplastics, and nutritional imbalance, can lead to pathological changes in muscle tissue, which can lead to irreversible damage and may reduce consumer experience and acceptance to a certain extent. The review further highlights recent progress in understanding how the interplay of energy metabolism disorders, oxidative imbalance, and gene regulation mediates these quality. Finally, strategies for mitigating stress and improving muscle quality, including environmental optimization, nutritional regulation, and postharvest management, are evaluated. Emerging biotechnologies offer new avenues for mitigating stress and improving muscle quality, yet their application in crustacean aquaculture demands continued research. Despite these advances, quantifying the interactive effects among multiple stressors and developing sustainable stress management systems remain major challenges for ensuring high-quality crustacean products.
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Progress on the Effects of Microplastics on Aquatic Crustaceans: A Review
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This review examined the effects of microplastics on aquatic crustaceans, finding that microplastics negatively affect life history, behavior, and physiological functions including oxidative stress, immune responses, and reproductive output across multiple species.
Microplastics weaken the exoskeletal mechanical properties of Pacific whiteleg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei
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Researchers discovered that environmentally realistic levels of microplastics weakened the shells of whiteleg shrimp by disrupting the structure of chitin, the main building material in crustacean exoskeletons. The microplastics also embedded in the shell surface and altered key genes and metabolites involved in shell formation. Since shrimp is a widely consumed seafood, this finding raises questions about both the quality of farmed shrimp and the potential for microplastic transfer to human consumers.
Oxidative effects of consuming microplastics in different tissues of white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei
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Researchers fed white shrimp diets containing polystyrene microplastics and found the particles accumulated in gills, muscles, and the hepatopancreas. The microplastics triggered oxidative stress, DNA damage, and lipid damage in multiple tissues, along with visible tissue abnormalities including edema and immune cell infiltration. The study demonstrates that dietary microplastic exposure can cause widespread oxidative harm across different organ systems in commercially important shellfish.
Microplastics in decapod crustaceans: Accumulation, toxicity and impacts, a review
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This review summarizes research on microplastic contamination in decapod crustaceans like shrimp, crabs, and lobsters, which are widely consumed as seafood. Studies have found microplastics accumulating in their gills, digestive organs, and gut, with experimental evidence showing oxidative stress, immune damage, and reproductive toxicity. The findings raise concerns about potential human exposure to microplastics through seafood consumption.
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