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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Molecular Innate Immunity
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1476309
This article is part of the Research Topic Molecular Innate Immunity in Aquatic Animals and Their Response to Epidemic Diseases View all 4 articles

Acute hypoxia stress mediates HIF-1α-Yki-Cactus axis to facilitate the infection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Litopenaeus vannamei

Provisionally accepted
Honghui He Honghui He 1Shaoqing Huang Shaoqing Huang 2Ningze Geng Ningze Geng 1Shaoping Weng Shaoping Weng 1Jianguo He Jianguo He 1*Chaozheng Li Chaozheng Li 1*
  • 1 Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
  • 2 Beibu Gulf University, Qinzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Hypoxia stress renders aquatic animals more susceptible to bacterial disease, yet the underlying mechanism remains elusive. We conducted an acute hypoxia stress experiment to investigate the impact of stress on the immune response of Litopenaeus vannamei via transcriptome analysis, RT-qPCR and Western blot. Our results showed that acute hypoxia stress disrupted the tissue architecture, and significantly changed the gene expression profiles in the hepatopancreas of shrimp. More importantly, acute hypoxia stress significantly changed the expression levels of immune-related genes.Ladderlectin, GBP 1, Caspase-1, CLEC4F, MR1 and GBP 2 were significantly down-regulated, but HIF-1α, Cactus, TIPE, Akirin-2, Ivns1abp and TLR3 were significantly up-regulated. We further demonstrated that acute hypoxia activated Yki via HIF-1α to enhance expression level of Cactus, and then Cactus inhibited the phosphorylation of Dorsal and its nuclear translocation, thereby suppressing antibacterial immunity. Subsequently, the challenge experiment following stress revealed that exposure to acute hypoxia stress amplified the infectivity and lethality of Vibrio parahaemolyticus to shrimp. The mechanism of HIF-1α-Yki-Cautus axis provided an explanation for this phenomenon. This study offered new insights into interactions among environmental hypoxia stress, host immunity and pathogens, thereby providing practical guidelines for optimizing shrimp culture practices.

    Keywords: hypoxia, shrimp, Disease, HIF-1α-Yki-Cautus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus

    Received: 05 Aug 2024; Accepted: 11 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 He, Huang, Geng, Weng, He and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Jianguo He, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
    Chaozheng Li, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.