title: Identification and characterization of a putative lipopolysaccharide-induced TNF-α factor (LITAF) gene from Amphioxus (Branchiostoma belcheri): an insight into the innate immunity of Amphioxus and the evolution of LITAF.
abstract: Innate immunity defenses against infectious agent in all multicultural organisms. TNF-α is an important cytokine that can be stimulated by Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to regulate the innate immunity. The lipopolysaccharide-induced TNF-α factor (LITAF) functions as a transcription factor for regulating the expression of TNF-α as well as various inflammatory cytokines in response to LPS stimulation. The physiological significance of LITAF gene in the innate immunity of various animals has recently been reported. However, no LITAF gene has yet been identified in amphioxus, which is the best available stand-in for the proximate invertebrate ancestor of the vertebrates. In this study, we identified and characterized an amphioxus LITAF gene (designated as AmphiLITAF). First, we identified the AmphiLITAF from the amphioxus and found that AmphiLITAF gene with ~1.6 kb in length has a 827bp cDNA transcription product which encodes a putative protein with 127 amino acids containing conserved LITAF-domain, and the deduced amino acid of AmphiLITAF shared 37-60% similarity with the LITAFs from other species; second, we uncovered the spatial distribution of the LITAF in different tissues, the expression level of AmphiLITAF mRNA was the highest in hepatic cecum and intestine, moderate in muscles, gills and gonad, and the lowest in notochord. Our findings provide an insight into the innate immune response in the amphioxus and the evolution of the LITAF family.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jinjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Liming
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D043344:Chordata / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D023061:Gene Order; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D009687:Nuclear Proteins