title: Identification and functional studies of Akirin, a potential positive nuclear factor of NF-κB signaling pathways in the Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei.
abstract: As conserved nuclear factors, Akirins play critical roles in regulating antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) transcription downstream of NF-κB dependent signaling pathways in insects and mammals. However, no any functional studies was reported in penaeid shrimp. The identification and functional analysis of Akirin in the Pacific white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei were made in this research. The 833 nucleotides cDNA of Litopenaeus vannamei Akirin (LvAkirin) was obtained with an open reading frame of 639 bp, which encodes a putative protein of 212 amino acids. The molecular weight of LvAkirin is about 23.7 kDa with theoretical pI of 9.05. Two predicted nuclear localization signals (NLSs) were found and amino acid sequence alignments showed that Akirins are highly conserved between insects and mammals. The constitutive expression of LvAkirin mRNA was confirmed in all the examined tissues and high level appeared in testis followed by hemocytes and gill. LvAkirin mRNA was strongly induced in response to Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection. Silencing LvAkirin by dsRNA significantly reduced the expression of NF-κB dependent anti-lipopolysaccharide factor, crustin and penaeidin3a as well as transcription factors, Dorsal and Relish post Vibrio anguillarum (V. anguillarum) and Micrococcus lysodeikticus (M. lysodeikticus) challenge. Antibacterial activities of shrimp plasma was analyzed and high cumulative mortality was found in LvAkirin-silenced shrimps post bacteria challenge. Hence, we proposed LvAkirin might function as a positive nuclear factor of NF-κB dependent signaling pathways in shrimp innate immunity.
authors: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Agriculture, Yangling 712100, China.
authors: Fujun
authors: F
authors: Hou
authors: Xianzong
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: Zhaoying
authors: Z
authors: Qian
authors: Qiao
authors: Q
authors: Liu
authors: Yongjie
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: Shulin
authors: S
authors: He
authors: Xiao
authors: X
authors: Mi
authors: Cheng
authors: C
authors: Bai
authors: Chengbo
authors: C
authors: Sun
authors: Xiaolin
authors: X
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D006434:Hemocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D033561:Penaeidae / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D014733:Vibrio / Q000276:immunology; D014735:Vibrio Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D016328:NF-kappa B; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors
keywords: Akirin; Antimicrobial peptides; Bacteria; Litopenaeus vannamei; NF-κB; RNA interference