Characteristics And Function Of C. Batrachus, An Amphibious Walking Catfish

INTRODUCTION

C. batrachus is an amphibious walking catfish which is capable of air-breathing. It resides in fresh water. It is found in Indian subcontinent. Usually, it lives in stagnant water bodies or swamps that are slow flowing. At the time of draught it moves terrestrially to live on mudflats. The characteristic features of such water bodies are low DO, high bicarbonate and NH3. During prolonged drought, it moves in or hides in the mud to avoid total dehydration
C. batrachus is ureogenic i.e. in normal environment it is ammoniotelic (excrete ammonia as primary excretory product) but when the environment demands it can switch to ureotelic mode of excretion (synthesize urea via the conventional urea cycle).
Under such environmental condition,
As a result stress proteins are induced to acclimate to the stressed condition. These responses are called stress responses also known as Heat Shock and so stress protein are known as heat shock protein. These stress protein are highly conserved. These proteins play fundamental role in the maintenance of homeostasis and viability of the cell.
HSPs that are categorized according based on molecular masses work as molecular chaperones. Molecular chaperones are the molecules that facilitate the synthesis and folding of proteins. They also play a vital role in proper assembly of protein. They do so by transiently binding to the nascent polypeptides and unfolded proteins. This binding prevents misfolding or unwanted aggregation by preventing inter- or intra- molecular interactions. They also participate in secretion, protein trafficking and degradation of proteins.
Heat shock 70 kDa (HSP70) proteins family is one of the most predominant classes of molecular chaperones. It is present almost in every organism from bacteria to mammals. HSP70 is also present in fishes. In normal condition it is constitutively expressed. However, in case of stressed conditions, such as heat shock, UV and γ- irradiation, and chemical exposure, there is elevation in the expression levels of
And as it is inducible in nature, it works as a moderator of stress inside the cell. Therefore, my main aim in the present study was to ascertain the possible increase of Hsp70 concentration by Western blot analysis and Hsp70 mRNA expression by RT-PCR analysis in different tissues of Clarias batrachus under hyper-ammonia stress due to exposure to high environmental ammonia (25 mM NH4Cl) in situ.

Results:
Changes of Hsp70 concentration NH4Cl-treated fish
To characterize the expression of Hsp70 in different tissues of air-breathing catfish, Clarias batrachus, Western blotting analysis was performed to confirm the expression level of HSP70 in all the four tissues such as liver, kidney, brain and muscle. There was a significant elevation in the expression level of Hsp70 in all the four tissues.
• In liver, the concentration of HSP70 increased by 2.4 fold
• In kidney, the concentration of HSP70 increased by 1.9 fold,
• In brain, the concentration of HSP70 increased by 1.8 fold and
• In muscle, the concentration of HSP70 increased by 1.3