title: Characterization of a novel CC chemokine CCL4 in immune response induced by nitrite and its expression differences among three populations of Megalobrama amblycephala.
abstract: A novel CC chemokine gene, chemokine CC motif ligand 4 (CCL4), was isolated from Megalobrama amblycephala. The full-length cDNA was 913 bp, encoding 94 amino acid residues. The deduced amino acid sequence possessed the typical arrangement of four cysteines as found in other known CC chemokines. The expression of M. amblycephala CCL4 during the early development showed the mRNA levels before hatching and at 62 h post fertilized (hpf) were significantly higher than other post-hatching stages (P < 0.05). Besides, it was widely expressed in all detected tissues with the highest transcription in liver, followed by intestine, spleen and gill, where a larger number of immune cells including lymphocytes and macrophages are present. Our findings had fully confirmed that CCL4 expression was strongly induced in vitro and quickly up-regulated after nitrite stress, then substantially altered in all tested tissues, supporting a potential pro-inflammatory function. We also indicated that inflammation effect might firstly happen in blood after nitrite stress. Furthermore, the tissue expression differences of CCL4 among three natural populations revealed that CCL4 mRNA in Yuni Lake population was obviously higher than the other two populations, Liangzi Lake population and Poyang Lake population, which will provide valuable insights into breeding strategies for selecting population with better immune property of M. amblycephala.
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, College of Fishery, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070 Wuhan, PR China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, College of Fishery, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070 Wuhan, PR China.
authors.forename: Liping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, College of Fishery, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070 Wuhan, PR China.
authors.forename: Xinlan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, College of Fishery, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070 Wuhan, PR China; Freshwater Aquaculture Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430070, PR China.
authors.forename: Mengxia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, College of Fishery, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070 Wuhan, PR China; Freshwater Aquaculture Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430070, PR China.
authors.forename: Chunxiao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, College of Fishery, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070 Wuhan, PR China; Freshwater Aquaculture Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430070, PR China.
authors.forename: Weimin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education, College of Fishery, Huazhong Agricultural University, 430070 Wuhan, PR China; Freshwater Aquaculture Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province, Wuhan 430070, PR China. Electronic address: hbauwhl@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Huanling
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D054407:Chemokine CCL4 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002681:China; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003530:Cyprinidae / Q000378:metabolism*; D003710:Demography; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D060106:Lakes; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009573:Nitrites / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D054407:Chemokine CCL4; D009573:Nitrites
keywords: CCL4; Gene expression; Megalobrama amblycephala; Nitrite; Population