International Journal of Marine Science, 2025, Vol.15, No.4, 179-185 http://www.aquapublisher.com/index.php/ijms 181 Figure 1 a Estuarine oyster (photo by Lumin Qian). b Hi-C interaction heatmap showing 10 chromosomes of the estuarine oyster. c CIRCOS plot showing 10 chromosomes (a), the distribution of GC content (b), transposable elements (c), coding sequences (d), and duplicated gene cluster of the solute carrier families showing selection signals (e, also see Supplementary Figure 13). d Summary statistics of the genome assembly (Adopted from Li et al., 2021) In addition, classic stress-related genes are also involved in environmental responses. For instance, Cg_CLCN7 is responsible for chloride ion transport, and Cg_AP1 regulates apoptosis; both are significantly upregulated under high-salinity conditions (She et al., 2018). However, the distribution of these functional genes is not uniform across populations. Oysters from high-salinity or high-temperature habitats often carry more favorable gene variants (Li et al., 2020), reflecting a genetic basis for local adaptation. Nonetheless, differences at the genetic level do not always lead to observable phenotypic changes, as environmental context and gene-environment interactions remain important factors. 4.2 Metabolic and antioxidant response mechanisms In addition to activating stress-related genes, oysters also adjust their metabolism when facing harsh environments. For example, some oysters living in high-salinity seawater will activate pyruvate and taurine metabolism more frequently. These metabolic processes help cells maintain normal function and reduce damage caused by salinity stress (She et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2022). Some gene families, such as GPCRs, are frequently duplicated and show different responses depending on the type of stress-whether heat, salinity, or pollutants (Fu et al., 2022). These flexible responses may explain why oysters are so widely distributed.
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