Molecular characterization and expression analysis of cc chemokine FROM Hippocampus abdominalis  

Minyoung Oh, Seongdo Lee, S.D.N.K. Bathige, G. I. Godahewa, N. C. N. Perera, Wan Qiang and Jehee Lee
Department of Marine Life Science
Jeju National University
Jeju special Self-Governing province 690-756
Republic of Korea
E-mail: lucky5153@naver.com

Chemokines are a family of chemotactic cytokines that regulate chemoattractant to guide the migration of leukocyte. They are classified in the features of disulfide-bridge into four groups called CXC, CC, C, and CX3C. The CC chemokines are the largest group of chemokines in mammalian. The CC chemokines are divided into two groups including homeostatic chemokines and inflammatory chemokines based on the immune function. Homeostatic chemokines mediate immune cell trafficking and migration in bone marrow and thymus during immune surveillance, while inflammatory chemokines are involved in immune cell recruitment during infection and inflammation. In this study, we identified a homolog of CC chemokine from seahorse, Hippocampus abdominalis.

Seahorse cDNA transcriptome sequence database was established using 454 GS FLX sequencing technique. In order to determine the immune responses of CC chemokine, Streptococcus iniae, Edwardsiella tarda, LPS and the Poly I:C were employed as immune stimulants in time course experiment. In this study, a CC chemokine (HaCC) from Hippocampus abdominalis was identified and characterized. The cDNA of HaCC composed of 276 bp open reading frame that encoded 91 aa. Signal peptide was predicted at the N-terminus with 22 aa. Tissue-specific profiling showed ubiquitous expression in all tissues including blood, brain, gill, heart, intestine, liver, kidney, muscle, ovary, pouch, skin, spleen, stomach and testis. HaCC was abundantly expressed in gill followed by intestine. Significantly up-regulated pattern of HaCC expression was observed at 24h and 72 h after induction by S. iniae and E. tarda in kidney tissues (Fig.1) suggesting that CC chemokine is likely to play an important role in host immune defense against microbial infection.