Diversity of heat shock proteins in response to various stressors in the Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) serve as an evolutionarily conserved superfamily in response to various environmental stressors in almost all organisms. The Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, is a worldwide aquaculture species, which have to face various environmental stressors during the whole aquaculture process. Landscapes of HSPs at genomic level will be helpful for understanding the mechanism of this species in environment adaptation. In this study, a comprehensive analysis on the composition and expression profile of HSPs have been performed in L. vannamei. A total of 76 HSP encoding genes (one LvHSP10s, four LvsHSPs, 38 LvHSP40s, ten LvHSP60s, 14 LvHSP70s, five LvHSP90s and four LvHSP100s) have been identified. Most of these genes are dispersedly distributed in the genome, except for seven pairs of tandemly duplicated genes. Multi-transcriptome analyses indicated that LvHSPs are sensitive to various stressors, including pathogen infection, salinity, ammonia or temperature stress. The LvHSP family exhibited obvious tissue specificity in response to various stressors. Additionally, we found that both tandem duplication and alternative splicing of LvHSPs contributed to the adaptation to various stresses. These findings will provide clues for stress adaptation and development of aquaculture management strategies in penaeid shrimp.