Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals the effects of different feeding times on the hepatopancreas of Chinese mitten crabs

Feeding rhythms affect a range of physiological functions in crustaceans. To investigate their effect on the physiological functions of Eriocheir sinensis, herein, we analyzed the influence of different feeding times on the hepatopancreas transcriptome via high-throughput sequencing. We harvested the hepatopancreas of crabs at 12:00 on day 11 of the experiment. We weighted the crabs before and after the experiment and found that those in the 06:00 group had the highest weight gain rate. In addition, 512 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were grouped into nine distinct clusters. Functional enrichment analysis of DEGs showed that E. sinensis metabolic and immune processes were affected by the feeding time. Furthermore, we mapped the DEGs involved in retinol metabolism and the lysosome pathway. To our knowledge, this is the first comparative transcriptomic analysis of the hepatopancreas of E. sinensis based on different feeding times, which provides multi-level information to reveal the mechanism underlying the regulation of feeding rhythms in E. sinensis.