The tick plasma lectin, Dorin M, is a fibrinogen-related molecule.
A lectin, named Dorin M, previously isolated and characterized from the hemolymph plasma of the soft tick, Ornithodoros moubata, was cloned and sequenced. The immunofluorescence using confocal microscopy revealed that Dorin M is produced in the tick hemocytes. A tryptic cleavage of Dorin M was performed and the resulting peptide fragments were sequenced by Edman degradation and/or mass spectrometry. Two of three internal peptide sequences displayed a significant similarity to the family of fibrinogen-related molecules. Degenerate primers were designed and used for PCR with hemocyte cDNA as a template. The sequence of the whole Dorin M cDNA was completed by the method of RACE. The tissue-specific expression investigated by RT-PCR revealed that Dorin M, in addition to hemocytes, is significantly expressed in salivary glands. The derived amino-acid sequence clearly shows that Dorin M has a fibrinogen-like domain, and exhibited the most significant similarity with tachylectins 5A and 5B from a horseshoe crab, Tachypleus tridentatus. In addition, other protein and binding characteristics suggest that Dorin M is closely related to tachylectins-5. Since these lectins have been reported to function as non-self recognizing molecules, we believe that Dorin M may play a similar role in an innate immunity of the tick and, possibly, also in pathogen transmission by this vector.
Rego
Ryan O M
RO
Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Branisovská 31, Ceské Budĕjovice 370 05, Czech Republic.
Kovár
Vojtĕch
V
Kopácek
Petr
P
Weise
Christoph
C
Man
Petr
P
Sauman
Ivo
I
Grubhoffer
Libor
L
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D006434:Hemocytes / Q000737:chemistry; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D037102:Lectins / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D026861:Ornithodoros / Q000378:metabolism*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment
D019476:Insect Proteins; D037102:Lectins