title: Identification and characterization of complement factor H in Branchiostoma belcheri.
abstract: Complement factor H (CFH) is an essential regulator of the complement system and plays very important roles in animal innate immunity. Although the complement system of amphioxus has been extensively studied, the expression in amphioxus and evolution of CFH gene remain unknown. In this study, we identified and characterized an amphioxus (Branchiostoma belcheri) CFH gene (designated as AmphiCFH). Our results showed that the full-length cDNA of AmphiCFH gene consists of 1295 bp nucleotides containing an 855 bp open reading frame (ORF) that was predicted to encode a 284 amino acid protein. The putative AmphiCFH protein possessed the characteristic of the CFH protein family, including typical CCP (complement control protein) domain. Real-time PCR analysis showed that the AmphiCFH was ubiquitously and differentially expressed in five investigated tissues (intestine, gills, notochord, muscles, and hepatic cecum). The expression level of the AmphiCFH gene was induced upon lipopolysaccharide stimulation, indicating that the AmphiCFH gene might be involved in innate immunity. In addition, phylogenetic analysis showed that the AmphiCFH gene was located between that of invertebrates and vertebrates, suggesting that the AmphiCFH gene is a member of the CFH gene family. In conclusion, our findings provided an insight into animal innate immunity and evolution of the CFH gene family.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, PR China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, PR China.
authors.forename: Jiu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, PR China.
authors.forename: Denghua
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Developmental Genes and Human Disease, Ministry of Education, Institute of Life Science, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, PR China.
authors.forename: Liming
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, PR China. Electronic address: jinping8312@163.com.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, PR China. Electronic address: feima1986@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017242:Complement Factor H / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D004247:DNA; D064175:Lancelets / Q000737:chemistry*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D017242:Complement Factor H; D004247:DNA
keywords: Branchiostoma belcheri; Complement factor H (CFH); Evolution; Innate immunity; Lipopolysaccharide