Program

The temperate abalone, Pacific abalone (Haliotis discus hannai), is the most important abalone cultured species in China, while 80% of its production now is from subtropical area (Fujian Province) due to the large-scale application of hybrids. Therefore, an effective and accurate measurement for evaluating the abalone’s thermal tolerance is crucial for both scientific researchers and farmers. In this study, we evaluate the thermal tolerance of two abalone species: H. discus hannai (DD), H. gigantea (GG) and their offspring H. gigantea ♀ × H. discus hannai ♂ (GD) using Arrhenius break temperatures (ABT) of cardiac performance and expression of Hsp 70/90. These three groups possessed different thermal limits, as indicated by ABT, GD (32.50 ± 0.71°C) > GG (31.30 ± 1.52°C) > DD (30.00 ± 1.23°C). Integrative resequencing and transcriptomics methods for two Pacific abalone lines were used to investigate the genetic mechanisms for temperature adaptation. These results indicate that cardiac performance is an effective method to assess heat tolerance and can represent the different physiological statuses of abalones. Moreover, the results also suggested that global warming may have a profound influence on abalone aquaculture in China in the near future.