Background: Salinity is one of the main influencing factors in the culture environment and is extremely important for the survival, growth, development and reproduction of aquatic animals.Methods: In this study, a comparative transcriptome analysis (maintained for 45 days in three different salinities, 30 psu (HC group), 18 psu (MC group) and 3 psu (LC group)) was performed by high-throughput sequencing of economically cultured Penaeus monodon. P. monodon gill tissues from each treatment were collected for RNA-seq analysis to identify potential genes and pathways in response to low salinity stress.Results: A total of 64,475 unigenes were annotated in this study. There were 1,140 upregulated genes and 1,531 downregulated genes observed in the LC vs. HC group and 1,000 upregulated genes and 1,062 downregulated genes observed in the MC vs. HC group. In the LC vs. HC group, 583 DEGs significantly mapped to 37 signaling pathways, such as the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway; in the MC vs. HC group, 444 DEGs significantly mapped to 28 signaling pathways, such as the MAPK signaling pathway, Hippo signaling pathway and calcium signaling pathway. These pathways were significantly associated mainly with signal transduction, immunity and metabolism.Conclusions: These results suggest that low salinity stress may affect regulatory mechanisms such as metabolism, immunity, and signal transduction in addition to osmolarity in P. monodon. The greater the difference in salinity, the more significant the difference in genes. This study provides some guidance for understanding the low-salt domestication culture of P. monodon.

Ammonia nitrogen and salinity tolerance of Penaeus monodon from eight selected breeding families were evaluated at the concentration of 67.65 mg L−1 ammonia-N and reducing salinity from 15 to 0 ‰. The final survival of family A (88.67 ± 9.81 %) was highest, and the final survival of family B was lowest (24.33 ± 14.01 %) after the ammonia tolerance test. Upon completing the sudden drop salinity test from 15 to 0 ‰, the highest survival was observed in family B (98.00 ± 1.73 %), and the lowest survival was found in family H (18.00 ± 1.73 %). Family A showed the strongest ability to tolerate ammonia stress, and family B showed the strongest tolerance to low salinity. This study suggests that the tolerance of salinity and ammonia nitrogen varied between breeding families. Results from the present study provide useful information towards selective breeding in shrimp in aquaculture for environmental tolerance.

Salinization of freshwater ecosystems is a pressing global issue. Changes in salinity can exert severe pressure on aquatic animals and jeopardize their survival. Procambarus clarkii is a valuable freshwater aquaculture species that exhibits some degree of salinity tolerance, making it an excellent research model for freshwater aquaculture species facing salinity stress. In the present study, crayfish were exposed to acute low salt (6 ppt) and high salt (18 ppt) conditions. The organisms were continuously monitored at 6, 24, and 72 h using RNA-Seq to investigate the mechanisms of salt stress resistance. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the crayfish responded to salinity stress with numerous differentially expressed genes, and most of different expression genes was observed in high salinity group for 24h. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses indicated that metabolic pathways were the primary response pathways in crayfish under salinity stress. This suggests that crayfish may use metabolic pathways to compensate for energy loss caused by osmotic stress. Furthermore, gene expression analysis revealed the differential expression of immune and antioxidant-related pathway genes under salinity stress, implying that salinity stress induces immune disorders in crayfish. More genes related to cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis, such as the Foxo, Wnt, Hippo, and Notch signaling pathways, responded to high-salinity stress. This suggests that regulating the cellular replication cycle and accelerating apoptosis may be necessary for crayfish to cope with high-salinity stress. Additionally, we identified 36 solute carrier family (SLC) genes related to ion transport, depicting possible ion exchange mechanisms in crayfish under salinity stress. These findings aimed to establish a foundation for understanding crustacean responses to salinity stress and their osmoregulatory mechanisms.

Mortality due to environmental stressors negatively affects Penaeus monodon aquaculture. We compared bacterial communities in P. monodon individuals sensitive and tolerant to salinity and ammonia nitrogen stress using MiSeq in the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Thirty‐eight bacterial phyla and 735 genera were identified, with significantly different compositions among shrimp with different stress tolerance. The dominant phyla in all groups were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Tenericutes, Firmicutes, Fusobacteria, Actinobacteria and Verrucomicrobia. Proteobacteria was the most abundant and largest phylum overall. Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobia and Chloroflexi were more abundant in ammonia‐sensitive shrimp than in ammonia‐tolerant ones. Salinity‐sensitive shrimp had greater abundances of Planctomycetes and Parcubacteria than salinity‐tolerant individuals, but a lower abundance of Tenericutes. At the genus level, ammonia‐sensitive shrimp individuals had greater abundances of Pelomonas than ammonia‐tolerant individuals. Meanwhile, salinity‐sensitive individuals had greater abundances of unclassified Rhodobacteraceae, Nautella and Halomonas than salinity‐tolerant individuals, but lower abundances of Vibrio and unclassified Mycoplasmataceae. These results showed that while bacterial compositions were similar across individuals with different stress tolerance, the relative abundances of specific bacterial taxa varied. Our findings indicate a relationship between environmental stress and intestinal microorganisms in P. monodon and contribute to further understand the effects of different environmental stress factors on intestinal microflora of shrimp.