In this study, we used functional genomics to examine the molecular response of OA exposed red king crab. We leveraged juveniles that were exposed to (and tolerated) three carbonate chemistry treatments from hatching to the first crab stage (C1), thus capturing transcriptional differences among crab that are reared in historically ambient conditions along the Bering Sea shelf (pH 8.0), and those acclimated to a moderately (pH 7.8) and severely (pH 7.5) acidified environments that are projected to occur in surface and bottom waters by the end of this century [15]. Using RNA-Seq, a high-throughput sequencing approach that measures gene-activity, our study provides a snap-shot of system-wide changes in energy allocation due to acidification exposure by identifying genes, their functions, and biological processes that differ in OA-reared crab [56]. Libraries were constructed from at least 13 individuals per treatment, rather than pools of individuals which can obscure genotypedependent variation. Importantly, since the crab used in this experiment were quite tolerant of OA conditions, the molecular mechanisms and pathways described here may be potentially critical to survival in an acidified environment.

In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Gattuso et al, 2024) was used to compute a complete and consistent set of carbonate system variables, as described by Nisumaa et al. (2010). In this dataset the original values were archived in addition with the recalculated parameters (see related PI). The date of carbonate chemistry calculation by seacarb is 2024-04-25.