Autophagy genes of ATG5-ATG12 complex in response to exogenous stimulations in Litopenaeus vannamei

Autophagy plays an important role in resisting pathogens infection and environmental stress. However, there are few studies on autophagy and its regulation in Litopenaeus vannamei. In this study, the autophagy-related genes of ATG5-ATG12 complex (ATG5, ATG7, ATG10 and ATG12) were cloned and investigated on the response to exogenous stimulations in L. vannamei. Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis of different species showed that four autophagy genes were conserved among different species. Tissue detection showed that the four autophagy genes were expressed in all tissues, and the expression level was the highest in the hepatopancreas in L. vannamei. Furthermore, the expression levels of the four autophagy genes were up-regulated significantly after stimulation with Vibrio harveyi and the virus analog poly(I:C) (p<0.05), and their peak values occurred at 24-48h. These results indicated that ATG5, ATG7, ATG10 and ATG12 may be involved in resisting pathogen infection in L.vannamei, which provided a basis for studying the molecular mechanism of autophagy in resistance to pathogen infection of L. vannamei.