Comprehensive transcriptome analysis reveal key molecular events in the pearl oyster after pre-grafting conditioning

Pre-grafting conditioning is a crucial procedure before transplant surgery during pearl production. To investigate the molecular response of the pearl oyster Pinctada fucata martensii to conditioning, we constructed two hemocyte transcriptomes from pearl oysters with and without conditioning. A total of 134,222,686 raw reads were generated and assembled using the reference genome of the pearl oyster. Transcriptome analysis revealed 3,074 differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Gene ontology and pathway enrichment analyses revealed that these DEGs were mainly associated with “microtubule-based process”, “regulation of actin cytoskeleton”, and “cell cycle”. All related genes were over-expressed in pearl oysters after conditioning. Some nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptors (NLR), toll-like receptor, myd88, proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-17 (IL-17), and apoptosis-related genes were highly expressed in pearl oysters after conditioning, indicating that conditioning induced the immune response of pearl oysters. “Fatty acid biosynthesis” (FA biosynthesis) was included in the enriched terms, and all eight FA synthase genes in this pathway were highly induced after conditioning. Four tandemly duplicated arginine kinase genes (PmAK) were found in the genome of P. f. martensii, gene structure and sequence analysis indicated PmAK genes were more diverse compared with that from human and zebra fish. The four tandemly duplicated PmAKs were highly up-regulated after conditioning. These findings will help to elucidate the responding molecular events after conditioning and explain the high pearl oyster survival rate with conditioning after transplantation, thereby providing useful information in perfecting the conditioning method to improve pearl oyster survival rate after transplantation.