A trehalose-6-phosphate synthase gene from Chinese shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis

Trehalose is an important disaccharide and plays a key role in many organisms under different stress conditions. In the study, a gene (FcTPS) encoded trehalose-6-phosphate synthase was reported from Chinese shrimp, Fenneropenaeus chinensis. The full-length cDNA of FcTPS is 3,281 bp including a poly A-tail of 20 bp, encoding a putative protein of 844 amino acids. The predicted protein contains a glycol_transf_20 domain and a trehalose_PPase domain. Genomic structure of FcTPS is composed of three exons with 192, 157 and 2,912 bp and two introns with 1,057 and 568 bp. In the second intron, four different SSRs are found. Transcripts of FcTPS gene are constitutively expressed in various tissues, with strongest level in hepatopancreas. After the shrimp were challenged with WSSV or Vibrio and the expression of FcTPS in hepatopancreas were analyzed using real-time PCR, the result showed that FcTPS transcript was down-regulated significantly in response to the challenge of Vibro at the early of 5 h post-challenge and then up-regulated significantly at 14 h. In addition, the expression of FcTPS showed the same result after the shrimp were challenged with WSSV. These results provide some new information about the tissue distribution, expression profiles and potential function of the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase in shrimp.