title: Highly variable immune-response proteins (185/333) from the sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus: proteomic analysis identifies diversity within and between individuals.
abstract: 185/333 genes and transcripts from the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, predict high levels of amino acid diversity within the encoded proteins. Based on their expression patterns, 185/333 proteins appear to be involved in immune responses. In the present study, one- and two-dimensional Western blots show that 185/333 proteins exhibit high levels of molecular diversity within and between individual sea urchins. The molecular masses of 185/333-positive bands or spots range from 30 to 250 kDa with a broad array of isoelectric points. The observed molecular masses are higher than those predicted from mRNAs, suggesting that 185/333 proteins form strong associations with other molecules or with each other. Some sea urchins expressed >200 distinct 185/333 proteins, and each animal had a unique suite of the proteins that differed from all other individuals. When sea urchins were challenged in vivo with pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs; bacterial LPS and peptidoglycan), the expression of 185/333 proteins increased. More importantly, different suites of 185/333 proteins were expressed in response to different PAMPs. This suggests that the expression of 185/333 proteins can be tailored toward different PAMPs in a form of pathogen-specific immune response.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Nolwenn M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Dheilly
authors.forename: Sham V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: L Courtney
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Raftos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D040901:Proteomics; D047270:Strongylocentrotus purpuratus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins