Effects of acute ammonia exposure on antioxidant and detoxification metabolism in clam Cyclina sinensis

To investigate the defensive strategies of clam Cyclina sinensis in response to environmental ammonia exposure, we investigate the 96 h median lethal concentration (LC50-96 h) and the 96 h safe concentration (SC) of total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) for C. sinensis, and on the basis we examined glutamine synthetase (GS) activity, glutamine content, urea content and the antioxidant enzyme activities of super oxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in 96 h at three different levels of TAN as 0 (control), 73.94 (T1) and 227.04 mg/L (T2). Results showed that LC50-96 h and SC for C. sinensis were 65.79 and 6.58 mg/L, respectively. The LC50-96 h and SC of NH3 were 1.70 and 0.17 mg/L, respectively. Ammonia exposure had significantly effects on SOD and CAT activities in the hepatopancreas tissue. Both the level of SOD activity and CAT activity increased with increasing concentration of TAN. No significant differences between T1 and T2 were found in GS activity from 3 h to 96 h after exposed to ammonia, whereas they were significantly higher than those in the control. Both the level of glutamine content in T1 and T2 increased significantly from 6 h to 24 h after exposed to ammonia and they were significantly higher than those in the control. There were no significantly differences were found in the level of urea concentration between T1 and T2 from 6 h to 96 h, while they were significantly higher those in the control. In conclusion, enhancing hepatopancreas antioxidant responses as well as converting ammonia into glutamine and urea worked in combination to allow C. sinensi to defend against acute ammonia exposure. •The LC50-96 h and SC for C. sinensis were 66.79 and 6.58 mg/L respectively.•The LC50-96 h and SC of NH3 for C. sinensis were 1.70 and 0.17 mg/L respectively.•Both the level of SOD and CAT activity in the hepatopancreas tissue showed a dose and a time dependent effect with TAN conctration.•Under acute ammonia exposure, enhanced hepatopancreas antioxidant responses as well as converted ammonia into glutamine and urea worked in combination to allow C. sinensi to defend against acute ammonia exposure.