title: The first characterization of gene structure and biological function for echinoderm translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP).
abstract: Translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) is a multifunctional protein that existed ubiquitously in different eukaryote species and distributed widely in various tissues and cell types. In this study, the gene structure and biological function of TCTP were first characterized in echinoderm. An echinoderm TCTP named StmTCTP was identified from sea cucumber (Stichopus monotuberculatus) by expression sequence tag (EST) analysis and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) approach. The StmTCTP cDNA is 1219 bp in length, containing a 5'-untranslated region (UTR) of 77 bp, a 3'-UTR of 623 bp and an open reading frame (ORF) of 519 bp that encoding a protein of 172 amino acids with a deduced molecular weight of 19.80 kDa and a predicted isolectric point of 4.66. Two deduced signal signatures termed TCTP1 and TCTP2, a microtubule binding domain, a Ca(2+) binding domain and the conserved residues forming Rab GTPase binding surface were found in the StmTCTP amino acid sequence. For the gene structure, StmTCTP contains four exons separated by three introns. The anti-oxidation and heat shock protein activities of recombinant TCTP protein were also demonstrated in this study. In addition, the expression of StmTCTP was found to be significantly upregulated by polyriboinosinic polyribocytidylic acid [poly (I:C)], lipopolysaccharides (LPS) or inactivated bacteria challenge in in vitro primary culture experiments of coelomocytes, suggested that the sea cucumber TCTP might play critical roles not only in the defense against oxidative and thermal stresses, but also in the innate immune defense against bacterial and viral infections.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology (LMB), Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology of Guangdong Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMB), South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou, 510301, PR China. Electronic address: rosemary166@sina.com.
authors.forename: Chunhua
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology (LMB), Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology of Guangdong Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMB), South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou, 510301, PR China. Electronic address: chan1010@scsio.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology (LMB), Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology of Guangdong Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMB), South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou, 510301, PR China. Electronic address: jiangxiao4367@126.com.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology (LMB), Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology of Guangdong Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMB), South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou, 510301, PR China. Electronic address: yhwang@scsio.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Yanhong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology (LMB), Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology of Guangdong Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMB), South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou, 510301, PR China. Electronic address: hucq@scsio.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Chaoqun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001681:Biological Assay; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004926:Escherichia coli; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags / Q000378:metabolism*; D040461:Gene Components; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000502:physiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012616:Sea Cucumbers / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D000090324:Tumor Protein, Translationally-Controlled 1
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; D000090324:Tumor Protein, Translationally-Controlled 1; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide
keywords: Anti-stress activity; Gene structure; Innate immune defense; Stichopus monotuberculatus; Translationally controlled tumor protein