Surviving environmental stress: the role of betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase in marine crustaceans

Abstract

Betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (BADH) belongs to the aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDH)
family, an ancestral group of enzymes responsible for aldehyde detoxification in several organisms. The BADH enzyme catalyzes the irreversible oxidation of betaine aldehyde to glycine betaine (GB) an important osmoptrotector and osmoregulator accumulated in response to cellular osmotic stress. The BADH enzymes have been extensively described in terrestrial organisms, but information in marine crustaceans remains scarce. Research on crustacean stress-adaptive capacity to environmental stressors relates GB accumulation in response to salinity variations. Although GB de novo synthesis is confirmed on crustaceans, its metabolic pathways and regulation mechanism are unexplored. In this work, the state of the knowledge of betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes in marine crustaceans is summarized, as a mechanism to overcome the deleterious effects of changes in temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen concentration in seawater. The purpose of this review is to provide a more comprehensive overview to set the basis for exploring novel functions and properties of BADHs on the response of crustaceans to environmental stress.