Involvement of a newly identified atypical type II crustin (SpCrus5) in the antibacterial immunity of mud crab Scylla paramamosain

Fish & Shellfish Immunology
Yue WangXiao-Wen Zhang

Abstract

Crustins, the main AMP family in Crustacea, are generated as isoforms in many species and implicated in innate immune responses, but their detailed molecular mechanisms on susceptible bacteria remain largely unclear. Type II and type I crustins are distinguished by glycine-rich region (GRR), which is a major marker motif, and some type II crustins exhibit stronger antibacterial activities than their GRR deletion mutants. In the present study, a novel crustin, namely, SpCrus5, was functionally characterized from a commercially valuable crab Scylla paramamosain. SpCrus5 contained a typical cysteine-rich domain at the N-terminus, a conserved WAP domain in the center, and a special GRR at the C-terminus, which is located in a site that differs from that of GRRs in typical type II crustins found between signal peptides and cysteine-rich domains. SpCrus5 shared high similarities with most type II crustins, and it was more closely related to type II crustins than to other retrieved crustins. SpCrus5 was predominantly expressed in gills and remarkably upregulated after the crabs were challenged with Vibrio parahemolyticus or Staphylococcus aureus, suggesting that SpCrus5 might participate in antibacterial immune responses. To further e...Continue Reading

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