Cloning of sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase (SERCA) gene from white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei and its expression level analysis under salinity stress.

Sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase (SERCA) is an intracellular membrane bound enzyme that utilizes the free energy of ATP to transport Ca(2+) against a concentration gradient. In the present study, a new SERCA gene (LvSERCA) from white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) was cloned using suppression subtractive hybridization and rapid amplification of cDNA ends. The full-length cDNA of LvSERCA contained an open reading frame of 3,009 bp coding for 1,002 amino acids with a calculated molecular weight of approximately 109.8 kDa. The identity analysis of the amino acid sequence of LvSERCA showed that it is highly conserved with 10 transmembrane α-helices, one P-domain, one A-domain and one N-domain. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that LvSERCA is similar to other Arthropoda SERCA proteins. The mRNA levels of LvSERCA under salinity stress (3 and 40 g L(-1)) were analyzed by reverse transcription PCR and quantitative real-time PCR. The results showed that LvSERCA was expressed in all tissues detected. LvSERCA mRNA levels were significantly higher under hyper-salinity than hypo-salinity. These results highlight that Ga(2+)-ATPase plays an essential role in adjustment salinity stress, which may be useful for selective breeding of L. vannamei.