Identification of the salmonid IL-17A/F1a/b, IL-17A/F2b, IL-17A/F3 and IL-17N genes and analysis of their expression following in vitro stimulation and infection

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Functional characterization of a short peptidoglycan recognition protein from Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus)

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 31302221, 31172408 and 31272666) and Jiangsu Province (Grant no. BK20171274 and BK2011418), and partially by the Opening Project of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of Marine Wetland (Grant no. K2016-08). QZ was supported by the “Qinglan” project of Jiangsu province of China.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sequence and Expression Analysis of Interferon Regulatory Factor 10 (IRF10) in Three Diverse Teleost Fish Reveals Its Role in Antiviral Defense

Acknowledgments This research was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31101928), the National Science and Technology Support Program of China (2013BAD20B06), the State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology (2010FB02) and the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011). Q.X. and Y.J. were supported financially by the National Scholarship Council of China. Funding: This research was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31101928), the National Science and Technology Support Program of China (2013BAD20B06), the State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology (2010FB02) and the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011). Q.X. and Y.J. were supported financially by the National Scholarship Council of China. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sequence and expression analysis of rainbow trout CXCR2, CXCR3a and CXCR3b aids interpretation of lineage-specific conversion, loss and expansion of these receptors during vertebrate evolution

Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved. Open Access funded by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council This work received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. Q.X. and Y.J. were supported financially by the National Scholarship Council of China, J.W.H by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/K009125/1), and M.M.M. by European Commision LIFECYCLE project (222919).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Interleukin (IL)-2 Is a Key Regulator of T Helper 1 and T Helper 2 Cytokine Expression in Fish : Functional Characterization of Two Divergent IL2 Paralogs in Salmonids

This work was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC, BB/N024052/1) under the Newton Fund RCUK-CONICYT Research Partnerships call. YH was supported by a PhD Studentship from the Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taiwan). EW was supported financially by the Faculty of Technology, Mahasarakham University Grant Year 2018. FL was supported by a Newton International Fellowship funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK (AMS, NIF004\1036). ML and QX were supported financially by the National Scholarship Council of China. This work was partially supported financially by European Commission contract No. 311993 (TargetFish).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

First in-depth analysis of the novel Th2-type cytokines in salmonid fish reveals distinct patterns of expression and modulation but overlapping bioactivities

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The VHSV-infected samples were generated within the Scottish Government funded research project FC1996 and kindly provided by Marine Scotland staff. Thanks to ELANCO for providing the A. davidanieli (Renogen). FINANCIAL SUPPORT T. W. received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions. Y.J., W.H. and Q.X. were supported financially by the National Scholarship Council of China. Z.Q. was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31302221) and the overseas training plan for young and middle-aged teachers and principals of colleges and universities in Jiangsu Province, China. M.M.C. was funded by an Ángeles Alvariño postdoctoral contract from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and the Xunta de Galicia. P.D.-R. was funded by a European Commission (EC) Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship (FP7). J.W.H. was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/K009125/1). This work was also supported financially by the EC, under contract Nos. 222719 (LIFECYCLE) and 311993 (TargetFish), and by the European Research Council Starting Grant 2011 (contract No. 280469).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Molecular characterization and expression analysis of cathepsin C in Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) after Aeromonas hydrophila infection

Background: Cathepsin C (CTSC) (dipeptidyl peptidase I, DPPI), is a member of the papain superfamily of cysteine proteases and involves in a variety of host reactions. However, the information of CTST in Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus), an amphibian species with important evolutionary position and economic values, remained unclear. Results: The full-length salamander CTSC cDNA contained a 96 bp of 5′-UTR, a 1392 bp of ORF encoding 463 amino acids, and a 95 bp of 3′-UTR. The salamander CTSC possessed several sequence features similar to other reported CTSCs such as a signal peptide, a propeptide and a mature peptide. The active site triad of Cys, His and Asn were also found existing in salamander CTSC. Salamander CTSC mRNA was constitutively expressed in all the examined tissues with significantly variant expression level. The highest expression of CTSC was in intestine, followed with stomach, spleen, lung and brain. Following Aeromonas hydrophila infection for 12 h, salamander CTSC was significantly up-regulated in several tissues including lung, spleen, brain, kidney, heart, stomach and skin. Conclusion: CTSC plays roles in the immune response to bacterial infection, which provided valuable information for further studying the functions of CTSC in salamander. Keywords: cDNA, CTSC, Dipeptidyl peptidase I, Gene expression, Hydrophila, Immune, Peptide, Sequence, Tissu

Optimal Dietary Protein Level for the White Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei ) in Low Salinity Water

In order to find the optimal dietary protein level for Litopenaeus vannamei in low salinity water, isolipid and isocaloric diets with different protein levels (25%, 30%, 35%, 40% and 45%) were tested to feed L. vannamei juveniles (mean weight 0.31 ± 0.02 g) for 56 days in salinity 2 g/L water. The results showed that: (1) as the dietary protein level increased, the final body weight, weight gain and specific growth rate increased at first and then decreased. In the 35% protein level group, significantly better results were obtained as compared to other groups (P<0.05). Through quadratic regression analysis of dietary protein level and weight gain and specific growth rate, we found that shrimps had the highest weight gain when dietary protein level was between 33.51%–34.35%; (2) as the dietary protein level increased, the shrimp moisture content decreased and the protein content increased while lipid and ash content did not significantly change; (3) as the dietary protein level increased, the activity of trypsin increased at first and then decreased, and the 35% protein level group had the highest trypsin activity, significantly higher than other groups (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in lipase or amylase activity

Establishment of a Multiplex PCR Assay to Detect Five Major Freshwater Bacteria

A multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) method for simultaneous detection of Aeromonas hydrophila, Streptococcus agalactiae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Edwardsiella tarda, and E. ictalur was developed to rapidly and accurately identify the five most common bacteria that infect aquatic animals. The expected amplicons for ahe2 gene of A. hydrophila, cpsE gene of S. agalactiae, khe gene of K. pneumoniae, mukF gene of E.tarda, and the serC gene of E. ictaluri were 853 bp, 685 bp, 428 bp, 356 bp, and 124 bp, respectively. In the single PCR assays, the minimum detectable DNA contents were 13.2 pg for A. hydrophila, 27.4 pg for S. agalactiae, 1.95 pg for K. pneumoniae, 1.63 pg for E. tarda, 1.02 pg for E. ictalur. The detection limits of the multiplex PCR were 0.66 ng, 1.91 ng, 0.68 ng, 0.41 ng, 0.71 ng for A. hydrophila, S. agalactiae, K. pneumoniae, E. tarda and E. ictalur, respectively. The established multiplex PCR is significant for the rapid detection of common pathogenic bacteria of aquatic animals and provides the basis for the diagnosis of fish diseases

Gene cloning and induced expression pattern of IRF4 and IRF10 in the Asian swamp eel (Monopterus albus)

The Asian swamp eel (Monopterus albus) is one of the most economically important freshwater fish in East Asia, but data on the immune genes of M. albus are scarce compared to other commercially important fish. A better understanding of the eel’s immune responses may help in developing strategies for disease management, potentially improving yields and mitigating losses. In mammals, interferon regulatory factors (IRFs) play a vital role in both the innate and adaptive immune system; though among teleosts IRF4 and IRF10 have seldom been studied. In this study, we characterized IRF4 and IRF10 from M. albus (maIRF4 and maIRF10) and found that maIRF4 cDNA consists of 1 716 nucleotides encoding a 451 amino acid (aa) protein, while maIRF10 consists of 1 744 nucleotides including an open reading frame (ORF) of 1 236 nt encoding 411 aa. The maIRF10 gene was constitutively expressed at high levels in a variety of tissues, while maIRF4 showed a very limited expression pattern. Expression of maIRF4 and maIRF10 in head kidney, and spleen tissues was significantly up-regulated from 12 h to 48 h post-stimulation with polyinosinic: polycytidylic acid (poly I:C), lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and a common pathogenic bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila. These results suggest that IRF4 and IRF10 play roles in immune responses to both viral and bacterial infections in M. albus