Abstract
Microcystis aeruginosa is reported to cause cyanobacterial blooms in shrimp breeding ponds, which can result in significant shrimp mortality. However, the toxic effects of M. aeruginosa on Litopenaeus vannamei are still not completely understood. In this paper, the toxicity of M. aeruginosa cells to L. vannamei was examined, and the toxic components in the cells were analyzed through high-pressure liquid chromatography (HLPC). In addition, the immune response of shrimp to the M. aeruginosa cell extract was assessed by measuring the activity of immune-related enzymes, as well as the transcription of the relevant genes. The results showed that M. aeruginosa cells, extract and cell-free cultured medium resulted in a 100%, 98.3%, and 1.7% mortality rate in shrimp, respectively. HPLC analysis results revealed the presence of microcystin-LR (MC-LR) at a concentration of 190.40 mg/kg of cells. In addition, the activity and gene transcription of two immune related enzymes, SOD and LZM, were both significantly reduced in shrimp hepatopancreas (p < 0.05) after injection with extract. However, reduced glutathione (GSH) content was slightly increased, but the ratio of GSH to GSSG decreased. The transcription of gst gene function as detoxification, was significantly downregulated (p < 0.05). The results demonstrated that M. aeruginosa cell extract was highly toxic to L. vannamei, and exerted a negative effect on shrimp immunity including reduction of antioxidant capacity, antibacterial activity and detoxification activity, due to toxins including microcystin-LR.
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All authors contributed to this work. YCC formulated the project idea, YXu performed the experiments and wrote the paper, WJXu and XJHu analyzed the data, HCSu created figures and tables, GLWen and KYang provided editorial advice. All authors read and approved the final paper.
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This study was funded by Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province of China (322QN437), the key R&D Program of Guangdong Province (2021B0202040001), the Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund, CAFS (2020TD54), the Central Public-Interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund, South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, CAFS (2021SD08), the earmarked fund for CARS-48, the Guangdong Provincial Special Fund For Modern Agriculture Industry Technology Innovation Teams (2019KJ149), and Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation & Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, P. R. China (LFE-2015-14).
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Xu, Y., Xu, W., Hu, X. et al. Toxicity of the microcystin-producing cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa to shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. Ecotoxicology 31, 1403–1412 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-022-02597-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-022-02597-5