Metabolomic insights into inter-familial and pre-transport treatment effects on live transport stress in selectively-bred mussels, Perna canaliculus

INTRODUCTION: Selectively-bred green-lipped mussel, Perna canaliculus, families may differ in their physiological responses, potentially altering their sensitivity to preparatory treatment and thereby influencing its effectiveness in mitigating transport stress for live transport. OBJECTIVE: ) pre-treatment for mitigating live transport stress and enhancing recovery. METHODS: pre-treatment followed by 72-hour simulated live transport and 5-day recovery. Gill metabolic profiles were analysed immediately after transport and during recovery using GC-MS. RESULTS: pre-treatment reduced, but did not eliminate, transport-induced metabolic changes with family-specific responses observed. The less tolerant FamC showed stronger anaerobic metabolic responses to transport stress with 25 differentially expressed metabolites (DEM), resulting in 10 enriched pathways immediately after transport indicating a rapid but energetically costly stress response. In contrast, the more tolerant FamF showed a weaker transport response (12 DEM; 5 pathways) but activated broader metabolic pathways during recovery (21 DEM; 10 pathways), including metabolites linked to cellular protection after 1 day of recovery suggesting greater stress resilience and recovery capacity. CONCLUSION: The contrasting metabolic responses between mussel families indicate differences in transport stress resilience and recovery capacity, suggesting that selective breeding could improve resilience and pre-treatments effectiveness during live transport. Such pre-treatment could also be used for research and analytical purposes where minimising transport-induced physiological stress could improve sample quality and experimental reliability.