Dong Han, Wan Linli, Wang Chunsheng, Sun Cong, Wang Xiaogu, Xu Lin
College of Life Sciences and Medicine, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
Key Laboratory of Marine Ecosystem Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), Hangzhou 310012, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 May 28;26(11):5208. doi: 10.3390/ijms26115208.
Sediment burial generated by deep-sea mining is usually lethal to echinoderms, which are ecologically important in marine environments. However, their molecular mechanisms responding to sediment burial are still rarely investigated. In this study, was investigated for sediment burial research to analyze its gene expression variations by using comparative transcriptomes and to probe into shared molecular mechanisms of echinoderms under sediment burial. During sediment burial experiments, dissolved oxygen continuously decreased, which had a significant impact on , which suffered from hypoxic stress. Based on functional annotations of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), its metabolic patterns altered with the upregulated DEGs related to glycolysis and fatty acid degradation and the downregulated ones in the citrate cycle, and its immune responses also varied with the upregulated DEGs of apoptosis and the downregulated ones defending against pathogens. Meanwhile, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor signaling pathway and retinoic acid-inducible gene I-like receptor signaling pathway were also upregulated, indicating metabolic and immune changes. Furthermore, combined with functional annotations of twelve echinoderm reference genomes, those DEGs related to lipid metabolism and the immune response were also universally present in the echinoderm genomes. Our study probes into shared molecular mechanisms of echinoderms under sediment burial, which advances our understanding of echinoderms affected by deep-sea mining.
深海采矿产生的沉积物掩埋通常对棘皮动物是致命的，而棘皮动物在海洋环境中具有重要的生态意义。然而，它们对沉积物掩埋的分子机制仍鲜有研究。在本研究中，对 进行了沉积物掩埋研究，通过比较转录组分析其基因表达变化，并探究棘皮动物在沉积物掩埋下的共同分子机制。在沉积物掩埋实验期间，溶解氧持续下降，这对 产生了显著影响，使其遭受缺氧应激。基于差异表达基因（DEG）的功能注释，其代谢模式发生改变，与糖酵解和脂肪酸降解相关的DEG上调，而柠檬酸循环中的DEG下调，其免疫反应也有所不同，凋亡相关的DEG上调，而抵御病原体的DEG下调。同时，过氧化物酶体增殖物激活受体信号通路和视黄酸诱导基因I样受体信号通路也上调，表明代谢和免疫发生了变化。此外，结合十二个棘皮动物参考基因组的功能注释，那些与脂质代谢和免疫反应相关的DEG在棘皮动物基因组中也普遍存在。我们的研究探究了棘皮动物在沉积物掩埋下的共同分子机制，这增进了我们对受深海采矿影响的棘皮动物的理解。
