Integrative Analysis of Hepatopancreas Transcriptome and Proteome in Female under Thermal Stress.

The Chinese mitten crab (), an economically important crustacean that is endemic to China, has recently experienced high-temperature stress. The high thermal tolerance of points to its promise in being highly productive in an aquacultural context. However, the mechanisms underlying its high thermal tolerance remain unknown. In this study, female that were heat exposed for 24 h at 38.5 °C and 33 °C were identified as high-temperature-stressed (HS) and normal-temperature-stressed (NS) groups, respectively. The hepatopancreas of from the HS and NS groups were used for transcriptome and proteomic analyses. A total of 2350 upregulated and 1081 downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the HS and NS groups. In addition, 126 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were upregulated and 35 were downregulated in the two groups. An integrated analysis showed that 2641 identified genes were correlated with their corresponding proteins, including 25 genes that were significantly differentially expressed between the two omics levels. Ten Gene Ontology terms were enriched in the DEGs and DEPs. A functional analysis revealed three common pathways that were significantly enriched in both DEGs and DEPs: fluid shear stress and atherosclerosis, leukocyte transendothelial migration, and thyroid hormone synthesis. Further analysis of the common pathways showed that , , , and were overlapping genes at the transcriptome and proteome levels. These results demonstrate the differences between the HS and NS groups at the two omics levels and will be helpful in clarifying the mechanisms underlying the thermal tolerance of .