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Glycolytic regulation in aestivation of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus: evidence from metabolite quantification and rate-limiting enzyme analyses

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An Erratum to this article was published on 22 February 2017

Abstract

Aestivation is a state of dormancy in diverse animal species characterized by a depressed metabolism. High temperatures in the summer trigger aestivation in the adult sea cucumber, Apostichopus japonicus. In the present study, the glycolytic suppression in aestivating A. japonicus was verified by metabolite quantification and activity and a gene expression analysis of rate-limiting enzymes (hexokinase and pyruvate kinase). Significant decreases in glucose concentrations were discovered in the respiration tree (p < 0.01), intestine (p < 0.05) and muscle (p < 0.01) of aestivating A. japonicus; likewise, over this period, pyruvic acid concentrations significantly decreased in the respiration tree (p < 0.05) and intestine (p < 0.01), but were unchanged in muscle. Enzymatic activity variation of hexokinase (Aj-HK) and pyruvate kinase (Aj-PK) in aestivating A. japonicus revealed that Aj-HK remained at high levels in the respiration tree and muscle but significantly decreased in intestine (p < 0.01); the activity of Aj-PK also declined significantly in intestine (p < 0.01), whereas it increased significantly in the respiration tree (p < 0.05) and muscle (p < 0.01). The gene sequences of Aj-HK and Aj-PK were identified, and their transcriptional quantification revealed that the expression of Aj-HK was depressed in all of the examined tissues, whereas Aj-PK expression was depressed in muscle only. These results suggest that glycolytic suppression occurred in aestivating A. japonicus, especially in the intestine, and transcriptional and post-transcriptional modifications are involved in the regulation of glycolytic suppression in this marine species.

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Acknowledgments

The authors of this paper would like to thank Prof. Jiayan Xie for their technical assistance and equipment usage. This work was financially supported by Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LY14D060002), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41406137) and the Research Project of Zhejiang Ocean University (Q1405).

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  1. National Engineering Research Center of Marine Facilities Aquaculture, College of Marine Sciences, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan, 316022, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaowei Xiang, Changwen Wu, Aiyi Zhu, Jingwen Yang, Zhenming Lv & Tianming Wang

  2. Fisheries College, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, People’s Republic of China

    Muyan Chen

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  1. Xiaowei Xiang
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Responsible Editor: S. Uthicke.

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An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-017-3077-1.

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Xiang, X., Chen, M., Wu, C. et al. Glycolytic regulation in aestivation of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus: evidence from metabolite quantification and rate-limiting enzyme analyses. Mar Biol 163, 167 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-016-2936-5

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