Hsp70 and Hsp90 are differentially expressed in crayfish muscle and neurons after heat stress

Abstract

Heat shock proteins are essential cellular proteins that are highly conserved across organisms and contribute to adaptive responses of organisms during changing environmental conditions. Protein members of the families of heat shock genes can be differentially regulated in response to stressors and play critical roles in protein stability, folding, and molecular trafficking. We used a crustacean species with strong adaptability to diverse environments, the crayfish Procambarus clarkii, to study expression profiles of two well known heat shock genes, Hsp90 and Hsp70. This crayfish can withstand a broad range of temperatures, and its adaptability contributes to its value for human use as an agricultural food source and as a biological control agent against snails that transmit schistosomiasis. However, it has become a harmful invasive species in some areas. To begin to understand the thermal resilience of P. clarkii, we identified and cloned Hsp90 from crayfish by degenerate polymerase chain reaction in conjunction with rapid amplification of 3' and 5' cDNA ends, and subsequently sequenced and characterized the molecular chaperone. Sequence analysis by phylogenetic alignment and polypeptide three-dimensional structure prediction of the newly identified Hsp90 gene shows that it has conserved motifs with Hsp90s in other species. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, we characterized the expression profiles of Hsp90 and Hsp70 in muscle and in central nervous system tissues. We found that Hsp70 and Hsp90 transcripts are upregulated under heat stress in both muscle and the central nervous system, but that their expression levels are more robustly increased in muscle.