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Metabolism of amino acids during hyposmotic adaptation in the whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei

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Abstract

The penaeid prawn, Litopenaeus vannamei, was employed to investigate intracellular isosmotic regulation in situations where invertebrates encounter hyposmosis. Hemolymph osmolality was first analyzed to confirm osmoregulatory conditions in the experimental animals, followed by analysis of amino acids in muscle and hemolymph using high-performance liquid chromatography. Total muscle amino acid levels decreased when hemolymph osmolality was extremely low, whereas glycine and l-serine levels increased in the hemolymph. These results suggest that tissue amino acids were released into the hemolymph to lower the osmolality of the tissues for purposes of low-salinity adaptation. Next, oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion rates were examined, and the O/N ratio was determined. Oxygen consumption levels and ammonia excretion rates increased, and the O/N ratio decreased when the animals were exposed to low salinity. These results suggest that amino acids were abundantly consumed as an energy source when animals were exposed to low salinity. To confirm the consumption of particular amino acids, the specific activity of l-serine ammonia lyase was also examined. Specific activity was highest when l-serine levels in the hemolymph were highest. Thus, it appears that l-serine levels increased under hyposmotic conditions due to the consumption of l-serine as an energy source. It was concluded that particular amino acids as osmolytes are likely metabolized as energy sources and consumed for purposes of hyposmotic adaptation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Program for Promotion of Basic and Applied Researches for Innovations in Bio-oriented Industry of the Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution (BRAIN) of Japan. This work was also supported by Grants-in-Aid from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. We thank Ms. Yoko Furusawa for her helpful assistance during the rearing experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Global Agricultural Sciences, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan

    Junpei Shinji & Marcy N. Wilder

  2. Fisheries Division, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, 1-1 Ohwashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8686, Japan

    Tomoyuki Okutsu, Vidya Jayasankar, Safiah Jasmani & Marcy N. Wilder

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  1. Junpei Shinji
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  2. Tomoyuki Okutsu
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  3. Vidya Jayasankar
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  4. Safiah Jasmani
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  5. Marcy N. Wilder
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Correspondence to Marcy N. Wilder.

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Shinji, J., Okutsu, T., Jayasankar, V. et al. Metabolism of amino acids during hyposmotic adaptation in the whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei . Amino Acids 43, 1945–1954 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-012-1266-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-012-1266-2

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