Crassostrea virginica Raw sequence reads. Crassostrea virginica

The Crassostrea virginica oyster has biological and economic importance in the Gulf of Mexico, an area of high extraction and production of hydrocarbons. Exposure to hydrocarbons can affect reproductive processes in bivalves. In C. virginica the effect of the hydrocarbons in the gonad of undifferentiated organism has not been evaluated to determine the possible damage during the maturation process. To evaluate this effect, was generated RNA-seq data from C. virginica gonads exposed to a 200 μg/L of hydrocarbons at different exposure times (7, 14 and 21 days) and a control treatment (without hydrocarbons). The analysis of gonad transcriptome showed the negative effect of hydrocarbons on maturation with the sub-expression of 22 genes involved in different stages of this process. Also, genes in the immune system were down-regulated, whichmay indicate that exposure to hydrocarbons causes immunosuppression in bivalves. A group of oxidative stress genes was reduced too. This will contribute to a better understanding of the effect of hydrocarbons on the reproductive process of bivalves and, at the same time, allow us to identify possible biomarkers associated with hydrocarbon contamination in the gonad of C. virginica.