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Physiological and transcriptomic analyses reveal critical immune responses to hypoxia and sulfide in the haemolymph of clam Tegillarca granosa

Frontiers in Marine Science 2023 10 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 40 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Zhengkuan Yang, Yihang Wang, Puyuan Jiang, Feiyu Xia, Ying Xu, Xiaofei Tian, Xiumei Zhang

Summary

This paper is not relevant to microplastics research — it examines how hypoxia and sulfide exposure affect immune responses in blood clams (Tegillarca granosa) at a physiological and transcriptomic level.

Hypoxia and sulfide are inducing potential damage to aquatic organisms. However, the effects of hypoxia and sulfide on their immune systems and molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. In the present study, the clam Tegillarca granosa was exposed to hypoxia alone or in combination with sulfide (0.1, 0.5 mM) to investigate the physiological and transcriptomic responses in haemolymph. The IBR analysis revealed that moderate sulfide stimulated immune responses via increasing the total hemocyte counts, phagocytic activity, antibacterial activity, and antioxidant activity. The transcriptomic analysis revealed many critical signaling pathways (Toll and Imd, FoxO, NLR) and biological processes (antimicrobial/antibacterial peptide, interferon, interleukin, leukocyte, lymphocyte, mitophagy) involved in the immunostimulation. Our results would offer insights into the sulfide-tolerant molecular mechanisms in this species and provide a useful tool for assessing the integrated biological impacts of hypoxia and sulfide on shellfish.

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