FTIR Study of Copper Induced Bimolecular Structural Changes on the Gills and Hepatopancreas of Shrimp, PenaeusMonodon (Fabricius, 1798)

Copper is an essential element to the production of hemocyanin and is also involved in diverse life processes, including antioxidant defense, neurotransmitter production, cellular respiration, pigment formation and peptide biosynthesis. It is well documented that copper (Cu) has toxic effects at high concentration. This study was undertaken to present the effect of copper sulfate on gills and hepatpancreas normal control shrimp at molecular level by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The results mainly reveal that, Cu incubation causes an increase in lipid content and an alteration in protein profile with a decrease in alpha-helix and an increase in beta-sheet structure and random coil in both gills and hepatopancreas which might be reflecting a slight sub toxic effect of copper on normal shrimp at the dose used in the study