LAUSR

Abstract The kuruma shrimp Marsupenaeus japonicus is an economically important crustacean that is widely distributed throughout the Indo-West Pacific. However, M. japonicus exhibits relatively poor thermotolerance properties and frequently suffers from mass mortality during the hot summer months in aquaculture systems. Herein, we performed a comparative transcriptome analysis of M. japonicus in response to heat stress, focusing on immune responses, heat shock proteins, antioxidant systems and metabolism alterations under heat stress. The results revealed that M. japonicus generated adaptive responses to maintain physiological homeostasis under heat stress via the transcriptional up-regulation of heat shock proteins and antioxidant enzymes, enhancement of fatty acid metabolism. However, acute and prolonged exposure to heat stress resulted in the continually decreased expression of immune molecules and led to the repression of glycometabolism, the tricarboxylic acid cycle and the respiratory chain. This study provides a systematic overview of the M. japonicus heat stress response and elucidates potential molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon and summer mortality syndrome in this species, which is beneficial for proposing effective strategies to address summer mortality syndrome and promote kuruma shrimp production.