International Journal of Marine Science, 2025, Vol.15, No.5, 233-244 http://www.aquapublisher.com/index.php/ijms 233 Research Insight Open Access Structural Variations in the Oyster Genome and Their Role in Environmental Adaptation Liang Chen, Rudi Mai Tropical Marine Fisheries Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding author: rudi.mai@hitar.org International Journal of Marine Science, 2025, Vol.15, No.5, doi: 10.5376/ijms.2025.15.0021 Received: 26 Jun., 2025 Accepted: 28 Aug., 2025 Published: 10 Sep., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Chen and Mai, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Chen L., and Mai R.D., 2025, Structural variations in the oyster genome and their role in environmental adaptation, International Journal of Marine Science, 15(5): 233-244 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2025.15.0021) Abstract Oysters play a key role in the ecosystem and are also an important breeding shellfish, but their living environment faces multiple pressures such as salinity and temperature. Research in recent years has found that structural variants (SVs) are widely present in the oyster genome, including deletion, insertion, inversion, translocation and replication of large fragments. These structural variations not only increase the genetic diversity of oyster populations, but also play an important role in the environmental adaptive evolution of oysters by affecting gene dose and gene regulation. Based on the review of the characteristics of oyster genomes, this study focuses on discussing the types of genome structural variants, detection technology and their distribution characteristics in the oyster genome. Combined with environmental stress cases such as high salt, low oxygen and high temperature, it explains how structural variants affect gene expression and physiological phenotypes, thereby promoting the adaptation of oysters to environmental changes. Finally, the application prospects of oyster genome structural variation research in aquatic breeding, environmental monitoring and gene editing are prospected. Keywords Oysters; Genomic structural mutation; Environmental adaptation; High salt stress; High temperature stress 1 Introduction Oysters are an important part of the nearshore marine ecosystem. They have ecological functions such as filtering water quality and building habitats. They are also an important aquaculture shellfish in the world and occupy an important position in the coastal economy. Varieties such as Pacific oysters and Omi oysters are widely cultivated in China and around the world, with huge output and economic value. However, environmental stresses caused by climate change and human activities (such as sudden salinity changes, hypoxia and seawater warming, etc.) pose challenges to the survival and biodiversity of oyster populations (Li et al., 2021). For organisms to adapt to environmental changes in a short period of time, they depend not only on existing genetic variations but also on phenotypic plasticity. Oysters live in areas with severe environmental fluctuations such as the intertidal zone, and their high genetic diversity and phenotypic plasticity are considered key factors for their successful environmental adaptation (Guo et al., 2018). Structural variation refers to a sequence rearrangement or copy number change in the genome that is larger in length, which can directly affect the coding sequence or change the gene regulatory network, thereby producing phenotypic effects. For adaptive evolution under drastic changes in the environment, SV provides a large amount of genetic material, and its importance in the evolution of stress resistance and survival strategies of animals and plants is becoming increasingly prominent (Wang et al., 2023). Based on the above background, this study reviews the overall characteristics of the oyster genome and its comparison with other shellfish, introduces the types of SVs and advanced detection methods, analyzes the distribution and characteristics of SVs in the oyster genome, and focuses on discussing the influence mechanism of SV on gene function and environmental adaptability. Finally, it is expected that the prospect of applying SV research to oyster genetic improvement and ecological protection.
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