Mucosal expression signatures of two Cathepsin L in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) following bacterial challenge.

Abstract

The mucosal surfaces of fish are the first line of host defense against various pathogens. The mucosal immune responses are the most critical events to prevent pathogen attachment and invasion. Cathepsins are a group of peptidases that involved in different levels of immune responses, but the knowledge of the roles of Cathepsin in mucosal immune responses against bacterial infection are still lacking. Therefore, in the present study we characterized the Cathepsin L gene family in channel catfish, and profiled their expression levels after challenging with two different Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. Here, two Cathepsin L genes were identified from channel catfish and were designated CTSL1a and CTSL.1. Comparing to other fish species, the catfish CTSL genes are highly conserved in their structural features. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted to confirm the identification of CTSL genes. Expression analysis revealed that the CTSL genes were ubiquitously expressed in all tested tissues. Following infection, the CTSL genes were significantly induced at most timepoints in mucosal tissues. But the expression patterns varied depending on both pathogen and tissue types, suggesting that CTSL genes may exert disparate functions or exhibit distinct tissue-selective roles in mucosal immune responses. Our findings here, clearly revealed the key roles of CTSL in catfish mucosal immunity; however, further studies are needed to expand functional characterization and examine whether CTSL may also play additional physiological roles in catfish mucosal tissues.

• Authors: Renjie Wang, Lin Song, Baofeng Su, Honggang Zhao, Dongdong Zhang, Eric Peatman, Chao Li
• Journal: Fish & shellfish immunology (Fish Shellfish Immunol) Vol. 47 Issue 1 Pg. 582-9 (Nov 2015) ISSN: 1095-9947 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 26434716 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Fish Proteins
• Cathepsin L

Topics

• Aeromonas hydrophila (physiology)
• Amino Acid Sequence
• Animals
• Cathepsin L (chemistry, genetics, metabolism)
• Edwardsiella ictaluri (physiology)
• Enterobacteriaceae Infections (genetics, immunology, microbiology, veterinary)
• Fish Diseases (genetics, immunology, microbiology)
• Fish Proteins (chemistry, genetics, metabolism)
• Flavobacteriaceae Infections (genetics, immunology, microbiology, veterinary)
• Flavobacterium (physiology)
• Gene Expression Regulation
• Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections (genetics, immunology, microbiology, veterinary)
• Ictaluridae
• Immunity, Mucosal
• Mucous Membrane (immunology, metabolism)
• Phylogeny
• Sequence Alignment (veterinary)