Assessment of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α mRNA expression in mantis shrimp as a biomarker of environmental hypoxia exposure

Efforts to assess the ecological impacts of the marked increase in coastal hypoxia worldwide have been hampered by a lack of biomarkers of hypoxia exposure in marine benthic organisms. Here, we show that hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) transcript levels in the heart and cerebral ganglion of mantis shrimp (Oratosquilla oratoria) collected from hypoxic sites in Tokyo Bay are elevated several-fold over those in shrimp collected from normoxic sites. Upregulation of HIF-1 alpha mRNA levels in the heart after exposure to sub-lethal hypoxia was confirmed in controlled laboratory experiments. HIF-1 alpha transcript levels were increased at approximately threefold after 7 and 14 days of hypoxia exposure and declined to control levels within 24 h of restoration to normoxic conditions. The results provide the first evidence for upregulation of HIF-1 alpha transcript levels in two hypoxia-sensitive organs, heart and cerebral ganglion, in a marine invertebrate exposed to environmental hypoxia. These results suggest that upregulation of HIF-1 alpha transcript levels is an important component in adaptation of mantis shrimp to chronic hypoxia and is a potentially useful biomarker of environmental hypoxia exposure.