Transcriptome analysis of gills of Eriocheir sinensis reveals the molecular mechanisms of the ammonia stress response

Chinese mitten crabs (E. j. sinensis) are an important aquatic economic species in Chinese, and rice crab symbiosis has gradually become an important ecological farming model. However, E. j. sinensis will be exposed in high ammonia environment due to application of nitrogen fertilizers which are essential to rice growth.We investigated the molecular mechanisms of E. j. sinensis exposed to high ammonia through histopathological evaluation and transcriptomic analyses. Histopathological evaluation revealed that ammonia stress caused damage to gills of E. j. sinensis. Transcriptome analysis showed that some genes (xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH), C-terminal hydrolase L3 (UCHL3), O-Linked N-Acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) Transferase (OGT), Cathepsin B (CTSB) and Ubiquitin Conjugating Enzyme E2W (UBE2W)) which are related to defect ammonia, immune response and apoptosis altered. The study showed the molecular response mechanisms of E. sinensis in response to ammonia stress and provided wider slight for further study in the molecular mechanisms of the ammonia stress in crustaceans.