Molecular cloning and sequence analysis of two carbonic anhydrase in the swimming crab Portunus trituberculatus and its expression in response to salinity and pH stress

• Full-length cDNAs of two carbonic anhydrase isoforms (PtCAc and PtCAg) were cloned.
• The mRNA expressions of the two genes were detected in all tested tissues.
• PtCAc and PtCAg expressions were more sensitive to low salinity than high salinity.
• The change of PtCAg expression was particularly noticeable under pH stress.

Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is involved in ion transport, acid–base balance and pH regulation by catalyzing the interconversion of CO2 and HCO3−. In this study, full-length cDNA sequences of two CA isoforms were identified from Portunus trituberculatus. One was Portunus trituberculatus cytoplasmic carbonic anydrase (PtCAc) and the other one was Portunus trituberculatus glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol-linked carbonic anhydrase (PtCAg). The sequence of PtCAc was formed by an ORF of 816 bp, encoding a protein of 30.18 kDa. The PtCAg was constituted by an ORF of 927 bp, encoding a protein of 34.09 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequences of the two CA isoforms were compared to other crustacean′ CA sequences. Both of them reflected high conservation of the residues and domains essential to the function of the two enzymes. The tissue expression analysis of PtCAc and PtCAg were detected in gill, muscle, hepatopancreas, hemocytes and gonad. PtCAc and PtCAg gene expressions were studied under salinity and pH challenge. The results showed that when salinity decreased (30 to 20 ppt), the mRNA expression of PtCAc increased significantly at 24 and 48 h, and the highest value appeared at 24 h. The mRNA expression of PtCAg had the same situation with PtCAc. However, when salinity increased (30 to 35 ppt), only the mRNA expression of PtCAc increased significantly at 48 h. When pH changed, only the mRNA expression of PtCAc increased significantly at 12 h, which was under low pH situation. The mRNA expression of PtCAg increased significantly at 12–48 h, and there was no significant difference of the expression between the pH challenged group and the control group in other experimental time. The results provided the base of understanding CA′ function and the underlying mechanism in response to environmental changes in crustaceans.