Abstract
BACKGROUND: Larvae development is a critical step in aquaculture, yet the development of immune and stress responses during this early phase of life is not well understood. Snapper is a species that has been selected as a candidate for aquaculture in New Zealand. METHODS: In this study we explore a set of 18 genes identified as potentially being involved in the stress and immune responses of snapper larvae during the first 30 days of development. Larvae were collected between 11:45 a.m. and 16:10 p.m. each day. RESULTS: Most genes did not deviate from baseline expression throughout the 30 days, with some exceptions between Days 0 and 6 with glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and superoxide dismutase, mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2-like, peroxiredoxin-5 mitochondrial, and hepcidin, which predominantly increased and then stabilized by Day 6 until Day 30. Some genes were affected by the time of day, such as actin cytoplasmic 1 and catalase isoform X2. CONCLUSIONS: This exploratory study is the first to look at a panel of stress- and immune-related marker gene expression during early snapper development. It sets methods in place to explore the expression of these markers and determine the impact of different potential stressors, such as alternative food sources and other environmental changes. It also highlights the importance of same time of day collections for gene expression studies.