Differential expression of reproduction-related genes in shrimps from East Pacific fisheries

Shrimp fisheries and culture are important food sources worldwide. Central East Pacific fisheries are mainly supported by four species: Penaeus brevirostris, P. californiensis, P. stylirostris and P. vannamei. However, the same shrimp fishery practices, management strategies and closures are applied to these four species despite their differences in life history and reproductive periods. Most molecular studies have focused on the cultured species P. vannamei, while knowledge for the rest of the species is scarce. Therefore, this study sought to examine the transcriptomes of these four shrimp species from the Mexican Pacific at different maturity stages. A total of 165 unigenes were found to be reproduction-related in the four shrimp species. The genes with the highest overall expression levels were associated with ribosomes, transcription and methyltransferase pathways. Moreover, the reproduction-related genes with the highest expression values were polehole protein and ovarian peritrophin. The major expression similarities were primarily among pre-vitellogenic and vitellogenic females within each species, and secondly among the species P. brevirostris and P. californiensis and the species P. vannamei and P. stylirostris. Although these four species might share a geographical location or niche, the expression of reproduction related-genes at different gonadal maturity stages exhibited species-specific variations.