Molecular identification of heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) gene in the Indian edible oyster Crassostrea madrasensis (Preston) and Indian brown mussel Perna indica Kuriakose & Nair, 1976

Bivalves are constantly exposed to different kinds of stressors as they live in a habitat with frequent changes in environmental parameters. The xenobiotic pollutants also contribute to the stressful routine of bivalves. Studies on the genes which mediate and contribute to the physiological plasticity of bivalves in stressful situations, induced by natural and anthropogenic agents are gaining importance. Among the stress related genes, HSP family genes play an important role in managing stress induced by various factors. Recent reports underline the role of heat shock proteins in thermo tolerance, host defense and even in aging. Here we report the molecular expression and detection of heat shock protein genes (Hsp70) from the Indian edible oyster Crassostrea madrasensis and the Indian brown mussel Perna indica with unique distribution in Indian waters. The cDNA reverse transcribed from the total RNA of gill was used as template in Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to amplify Hsp70 gene segments with primers designed from the conserved nucleotide sequences of Crassostrea gigas and Perna viridis. PCR products were sequenced, and the similarity search in NCBI-BLAST confirmed the molecular identity of targeted genes. Phylogenetic analysis of the Hsp gene sequence data reveals the unique position of the Indian edible oyster and Indian brown mussel among the other counterparts inhabiting rest of the world. This stands out as the first report on the expression and PCR amplification of stress related genes from Indian bivalves.