The golden mussel proteome and its response to niclosamide: Uncovering rational targets for control or elimination.

The Asian invasive species Limnoperna fortunei (Dunker, 1857), known as the golden mussel, causes great economic and environmental damage due to its fixative capacity and accelerated proliferation. Molecular studies for the control of larval and adult forms are of great economic, scientific and technological interest. Here, we first report on the compositional analysis of the L. fortunei proteome obtained through shotgun analysis using LC-MS/MS. Among those 2790 proteins identified, many of them related to secretory processes and membrane receptors. Our second approach consisted in exposing the mollusc to the molluscicide niclosamide to evaluate the induced proteomic alterations. Exposure to niclosamide at 0.25 mg/L for 24 h resulted in a pronounced differential abundance of proteins when compared to those obtained when exposure was reduced to 4 h at 2.3 mg/L. In total, 342 proteins were found differentially expressed in the responsive individuals as revealed by label-free quantitative proteomics. Regarding the affected cell processes were: cell division and differentiation, cytoskeletal organization and compartment acidification (upregulated), and energy metabolism (downregulated). Our findings constitute the first inventory of the expressed proteome of the golden mussel and have the potential to contribute with a more rational proposition of molecular targets for control and monitoring of this species.