Silencing of the hypoxia inducible factor 1 –HIF-1- obliterates the effects of hypoxia on glucose and lactate concentrations in a tissue-specific manner in the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei

Many molecular and physiological responses to hypoxia are controlled by the transcription factor called hypoxia inducible factor 1 (HIF-1). Metabolic responses are particularly important for marine crustaceans that suffer hypoxia in their aquatic environment, including shrimp. HIF-1 is a heterodimer recently described in shrimp and composed by α and β subunits. In the present study, we investigated the effect of silencing HIF-1 using dsRNA in the response to hypoxia in the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei in vivo. Intramuscular injection of dsRNA for α and β separately, decreased the concentration of the corresponding transcripts in gills from shrimp maintained in normoxia, while no effect was detected in muscle. In contrasts, during hypoxia, silencing of HIF-1α or HIF-1β, did affect the corresponding transcripts. Moreover, silencing of the α and β subunits of HIF-1 affected the concentrations of glucose and lactate in hemolymph and gills from shrimp exposed to hypoxic conditions, giving insights of the action of HIF-1 in these responses.