Effect of salinity stress on the gene expression of Na/K ATPase on two Artemia populations (Artemia franciscana and Parthenogenetic Artemia) by RT-PCR-DGGE

Artemia is the only Crustacean that can withstand in very high salinity. Due to the climate crisis and increasing salinity of inland waters it is necessary to understand the molecular characteristics of Artemia. It can be a good way to choose the appropriate population to grow at high salinities. They are suspected of being different gene structure of Na+/ K ATPase which defer among bisexual and parthenogenetic Artemia. As a result of this molecular adaptation it seems to be seen some degrees of phenotypic adaptation which could provide difference growth abilities. In this study, two different populations of Artemia franciscana and Parthenogenetic Artemia were reared at salinities 60, 120 and 180 mg/l. At the end of the experiment the mRNA of Na+/ K ATPase was provided and converted to cDNA. Subsequent DGGE and sequencing analyses revealed that the products of these genes in A. franciscana is homozygous while in Parthenogenetic Artemia is heterozygous which is produced by two alleles. Also it was found that in the parthenogenetic Artemia protein translation and the production of two different alleles is obtained. Interestingly, no difference was observed in the samples studied. Apparently the only difference can be related to genomic variation among these populations.