Hydration/dehydration cycles imposed on Artemia cysts influence the tolerance limit of nauplii against abiotic and biotic stressors

The brine shrimp Artemia franciscana is an important live feed for fish and shellfish larviculture. Cysts of Artemia are naturally found in a wide variety of harsh environments worldwide where they are exposed to different changing environmental conditions. Artemia cysts are also exposed to different hydration/dehydration (H/D) conditions during the post-harvest processing period in the Artemia processing industry. In this study, cysts of two strains of A. franciscana originating from two different geographical locations—one a natural population from Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah, USA, and the other cultured in the Vinh Chau (VC) salt ponds, Vietnam—where they experience different environmental factors, were exposed to successive hydration/dehydration (H/D) cycles with the aim of determining the effects of these conditions on the stress (i.e., induction of Hsp70) and functional (i.e., resistance toward abiotic and pathogenic biotic factors) responses of the emerged nauplii. Our results showed that a short period of H/D of the cysts did not appear to have a deleterious effect on the emerged nauplii of both strains, as was evidenced by the absence of significant difference in the survival of nauplii emerged from the control and treated cysts, upon challenge with a thermal stressor or with pathogenic Vibrio campbellii. A limited exposure to H/D treatment even leads to the induction of enhanced thermotolerance in GSL nauplii. In essence, these observations add some insights to our current understanding of stress responses in Artemia under the described experimental conditions. In addition, the impact of H/D cycles associated with stress response should be taken into consideration when Artemia is considered as a model organism for future research and applications.