Research progress on the effects of hypoxia stress on crustacean and its molecular regulation

Oxygen is the most critical condition for animal’s life activities. When animals are exposed to hypoxia environment, the biochemical reaction and physiological function of the animals will correspondingly change, which can finally cause a series of metabolic disorders and damage to organisms or even death. Hypoxia stress mechanism is complex physiological regulation process involving multiple genes and regulated by fine-tuning. Hypoxia stress and molecular adaptation mechanism of crustaceans are unclear compared with mammals. In this paper, the causes of hypoxia stress were analyzed, and stress reacting process and physiological adaptation strategies of crustaceans in response to hypoxia, as well as the effects of hypoxia on behavior, survival, antioxidant ability, metabolic reaction, and molecular mechanisms of hypoxia stress of crustacean were described and reviewed. In addition, the molecular mechanism in response to hypoxia was discussed from HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor 1) signaling pathway, AMPK (adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase) signaling pathway and apoptosis pathway. On this basis, the multiple measures are necessary to prevent and regulate negative effects of hypoxia stress, including the breeding hypoxia-resistant variety, and nutritional regulation. This paper may provide a theoretical reference for people to deeper understand the mechanism of hypoxia stress and molecular adaptation in crustaceans.