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Whiteleg shrimp is a widely cultured crustacean, but frequent disease outbreaks have decreased production and caused significant losses. Toll‐like receptors (TLRs) comprise a large innate immune family that is involved in the innate immune response. However, understanding of their regulatory mechanism is limited. In this study, PacBio sequencing and Illumina sequencing were applied to the gill and hepatopancreas tissues of whiteleg shrimp and an integrated transcript gene set was established. The upregulation of Toll1, Toll2 and Toll3 transcripts in the hepatopancreas tissue of whiteleg shrimp after iridescent virus infection implies that these proteins are involved in the immune response to the virus; simultaneously, the TRAF6 and relish transcripts in the Toll pathway were also upregulated, implying that the Toll pathway was activated. We predicted the three‐dimensional structure of the five Toll proteins in whiteleg shrimp and humans and constructed a phylogenetic tree of the Toll protein family. In addition, there was a large discrepancy of Toll1 between invertebrates and vertebrates, presumably because of the loss of Toll1 protein sequence during the evolution process from invertebrates to vertebrates. Our research will improve the cognition of Toll protein family in invertebrates in terms of evolution, structure and function and provide theoretical guidance for researchers in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) is the most important species of shrimp farmed worldwide in terms of its economic value. Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) infects the hepatopancreas, resulting in the hepatopancreatic microsporidiosis (HPM) of the host, which causes slow growth of the shrimp and poses a threat to the farming industry. In this study, differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) between EHP-infected and uninfected shrimp were investigated through proteomics sequencing. A total of 9908 peptides and 2092 proteins were identified. A total of 69 DEPs were identified in the hepatopancreas (HP), of which, 28 were upregulated and 41 were downregulated. Our results showed that the differences among the level of multiple proteins involved in the apoptosis were significant after the EHP infection, which indicated that the apoptosis pathway was activated in whiteleg shrimp. In addition, expression leve of caspase 3 gene were identified related to the EHP infection. Furthermore, predictions of spatial structure, analysis of phylogeny and chromosome-level linearity of the caspase 3 protein were performed as well. In conclusion, a relatively complete proteomic data set of hepatopancreas tissues in whiteleg shrimp were established in this study. Findings about genes involved in the apoptosis here will provide a further understanding of the molecular mechanism of EHP infection in the internal immunity of whiteleg shrimp. • Whiteleg shrimps were sequenced and analyzed for EHP infection at the proteome level. • The expression levels of differentially expressed proteins were significantly increased after the EHP infection. • This study provided new insights into the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis and immunization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diseases caused by Vibrio harveyi in shrimps have gradually become one group of the most serious threats to shrimp production, while related molecular mechanisms of infections with Vibrio harveyi are still not known well in shrimps. Here, we performed proteomic sequencing of hepatopancreas in whiteleg shrimps (Litopenaeus vannamei) infected with exogenous Vibrio harveyi , and subsequent functional annotation and calculation of differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in this study. A total of 145 DEPs were obtained, among them 36 were up-regulated and 109 were down-regulated after the infection. Meanwhile, our results showed that after the infection of Vibrio harveyi , expression levels of a variety of C-type lectins (CTLs) were changed significantly. In-depth functional domain analysis and spatial structure prediction of these CTLs revealed that amino acid sequences and spatial structures of the C-type lectin domain (CTLD) shared by the CTL-S and IML proteins were variant, suggesting differential functions between the two CTLs. In summary, various members of the CTL family have different epidemic responses to Vibrio harveyi infection, which provides a theoretical guidance for deep-going investigations on practical immunity reactions and pathogen infections in shrimps. • We build a proteomics dataset of whiteleg shrimp. • First systematic study (Including structure and function) of C type lectin in whiteleg shrimp. • This study is helpful for in-depth understanding on pathogen infections in whiteleg shrimp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium deposition on graphite electrode not only reduces fast-charging capability of lithium ion batteries but also causes safety trouble. Here, a low-field 7Li dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) is used to probe Li plating on the surfaces of three types of carbon electrodes: hard carbon, soft carbon and graphite. Owing to the strong Fermi contact interaction between 7Li and conduction electrons, the 7Li nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) signal of Li metal deposited on electrode surface could be selectively enhanced by DNP. It is suggested that low-field 7Li DNP spectroscopy is a sensitive tool for investigating Li deposition on electrodes during charging/discharging processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]