科研之友
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摘要
Hyriopsis cumingii is the most important freshwater pearl mussel cultured in China. The operation for implantation is one necessary technical step for pearl culture. However, implantation-induced trauma results in a series of immune responses and can enable the invasion of pathogenic microbes. Lectin proteins are found widely in nature and play important roles in innate immunity. Galectins are members of the lectin superfamily and are characterized by one or several carbohydrate recognition domains (CRDs) that produce multiple sugar binding sites on the protein. Here we cloned and characterized the H. cumingii galectin gene HcGall, which encodes a 312 amino acid galectin protein. The HcGall transcript was detected in all tested H. cumingii tissues and showed higher expression specifically in immune tissues. The significant upregulation of HcGal1 expression was observed after challenging the mussel with lipopolysaccharide or Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. After implantation, significant downregulation of the HcGall transcript was noted in the mantle, hemocytes, and pearl sac in the acute stress stage (0-24 h) and the stage of wound healing and pearl-sac formation (24 h-7 d). In addition, significant upregulation of HcGall expression was observed in the liver in the stage of wound healing and pearl-sac formation. In the pearl-secretion stage (7-35 d), the HcGall transcript levels returned to normal in all tested tissues. We also show that recombinantly expressed and purified HcGal1 can agglutinate some Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. In addition, in vivo experiments showed that the recombinant protein HcGal1 could promote phagocytosis by hemocytes. Our data suggest that HcGal1 plays a role in innate immune responses involved in pathogen recognition and wound healing.
- 出版日期2016-9
- 单位上海海洋大学
