A galectin from shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei is involved in immune recognition and bacteria phagocytosis. Issue 2 (June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hou, Fujun; Liu, Yongjie; He, Shulin; Wang, Xianzong; Mao, Aitao; Liu, Zhigang; Sun, Chengbo; Liu, Xiaolin
• Is Part Of: Fish & shellfish immunology. Volume 44:Issue 2(2015:Jun.)
• Page Start: 584
• Page End: 591
• Publication Date: 2015-06
• Subjects: Fishes -- Immunology -- Periodicals; Shellfish -- Immunology -- Periodicals; Poissons -- Immunologie -- Périodiques; Crustacés -- Immunologie -- Périodiques; 571.9617
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fsi.2015.03.017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1050-4648

Abstract

<abstract xml:lang="en" abstract-type="author" id="abs0010"> <title id="sectitle0010">Abstract</title> <sec> <p id="abspara0010">Galectins are conserved family members with β-galactosides affinity that play multiple functions in embryogenesis, development and regulation of innate and adaptive immunity. However, little functional studies were reported in crustaceans. Here, a shrimp <italic>Litopenaeus vannamei galectin</italic> (<italic>LvGal</italic>) cDNA was identified with an open reading frame of 1017 bp, which encodes a putative protein of 338 amino acids. A carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD) and several amino acids residues involved in dimerization were found in <italic>Lv</italic>Gal. <italic>LvGal</italic> mRNA was mainly expressed in gills and hemocytes and upregulated post <italic>Vibrio anguillarum</italic> challenge. Recombinant <italic>Lv</italic>Gal (r<italic>Lv</italic>Gal) was expressed in <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> BL21 (DE3) and the purified r<italic>Lv</italic>Gal could strongly bind G<sup>−</sup> bacteria <italic>V. anguillarum</italic> and G<sup>+</sup> bacteria <italic>Micrococcus lysodeikticus</italic>. Besides, r<italic>Lv</italic>Gal exhibited strong activity to agglutinate <italic>V. anguillarum</italic> and weak activity to agglutinate <italic>M. lysodeikticus</italic> but no obvious antibacterial activity was found with selected bacteria. In addition, in vivo experiments showed r<italic>Lv</italic>Gal could promote phagocytosis of bacteria by hemocytes. Thus, through these collective data we predicted <italic>Lv</italic>Gal is involved in immune recognition and functions as a potential pattern recognition receptor.</p> </sec> </abstract>