Identification of immune genes in grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella in response to infection of the parasitic copepod Sinergasilus major

The parasitic copepod Sinergasilus major is an important pathogen of grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella. To understand the immune response of grass carp to the copepod infection, suppression subtractive hybridization method was employed to characterize genes up-regulation during the copepod infection in liver and gills of the fish. One hundred and twenty-two dot blot positive clones from infected subtracted library were sequenced. Searching available databases by using these nucleotide sequences revealed that 23 genes are immune-related, including known acute-phase reactants, and four novel genes encoding proteins such as source of immunodominant MHC-associated peptides (SIMP), TNF receptor-associated factor 2 binding protein (T2BP), poliovirus receptor-related protein 1 precursor, glycoprotein A repetitions predominant (GARP). The differential expression of seven immune genes, i.e. GARP, alpha-2-macroglobulin, MHC class I, C3, SIMP, T2BP, transferrin, as a result of infection was further confirmed by RT-PCR, with the up-regulation of alpha-2-macroglobulin, MHC class I, C3, SIMP and T2BP in the liver of infected fish, and down-regulation of SIMP in the gills of infected fish. The present study provides foundation for understanding grass carp immune response and candidate genes for further analysis.

Homologous feeder cells support undifferentiated growth and pluripotency in monkey embryonic stem cells

In the present study, five homologous feeder cell lines were developed for the culture and maintenance of rhesus monkey embryonic stem cells (rESCs). Monkey ear skin fibroblasts (MESFs), monkey oviductal fibroblasts (MOFs), monkey follicular granulosa fibroblast-like (MFG) cells, monkey follicular granulosa epithelium-like (MFGE) cells, and clonally derived fibroblasts from MESF (CMESFs) were established and compared with the ability of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) to support rESC growth. MESF, MOF, MFG, and CMESF cells, but not MFGE cells, were as good as or better than MEFs in supporting undifferentiated growth while maintaining the differentiation potential of the rESCs. In an effort to understand the unique properties of supportive feeder cells, expression levels for a number of candidate genes were examined. MOF, MESF, and MEF cells highly expressed leukemia inhibitory factor, ciliary neurotrophic factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, stem cell factor, transforming growth factor PI, bone morphogenetic protein 4, and WNT3A, whereas WNT2, WNT4, and WNT5A were downregulated, compared with MFGE cells. Additionally, all monkey feeder cell lines expressed Dkk1 and LRP6, antagonists of the WNT signaling pathway, but not WNT1, WNT8B, or Dkk2. rESCs grown on homologous feeders maintained normal karyotypes, displayed the characteristics of ESCs, including morphology, alkaline phosphatase, Oct4, the cell surface markers stage-specific embryonic antigen (SSEA)-3, SSEA-4, tumor-related antigen (TRA)-1-60, and TRA-1-81, and formed cystic embryoid bodies in vitro that included differentiated cells representing the three major germ layers. These results indicate that the four homologous feeder cell lines can be used to support the undifferentiated growth and maintenance of pluripotency in rESCs.

Microarray Analyses of Gene Expression during the Tetrahymena thermophila Life Cycle

Background: The model eukaryote, Tetrahymena thermophila, is the first ciliated protozoan whose genome has been sequenced, enabling genome-wide analysis of gene expression. Methodology/Principal Findings: A genome-wide microarray platform containing the predicted coding sequences (putative genes) for T. thermophila is described, validated and used to study gene expression during the three major stages of the organism's life cycle: growth, starvation and conjugation. Conclusions/Significance: Of the,27,000 predicted open reading frames, transcripts homologous to only,5900 are not detectable in any of these life cycle stages, indicating that this single-celled organism does indeed contain a large number of functional genes. Transcripts from over 5000 predicted genes are expressed at levels >5x corrected background and 95 genes are expressed at >250x corrected background in all stages. Transcripts homologous to 91 predicted genes are specifically expressed and 155 more are highly up-regulated in growing cells, while 90 are specifically expressed and 616 are up-regulated during starvation. Strikingly, transcripts homologous to 1068 predicted genes are specifically expressed and 1753 are significantly up-regulated during conjugation. The patterns of gene expression during conjugation correlate well with the developmental stages of meiosis, nuclear differentiation and DNA elimination. The relationship between gene expression and chromosome fragmentation is analyzed. Genes encoding proteins known to interact or to function in complexes show similar expression patterns, indicating that co-ordinate expression with putative genes of known function can identify genes with related functions. New candidate genes associated with the RNAi-like process of DNA elimination and with meiosis are identified and the late stages of conjugation are shown to be characterized by specific expression of an unexpectedly large and diverse number of genes not involved in nuclear functions.

Development of expressed sequence tags from the bay scallop, Argopecten irradians irradians

The bay scallop, Argopecten irradians irradians, introduced from North America, has become one of the most important aquaculture species in China. Inan effort to identify scallop genes involved in host defense, a high-quality cDNA library was constructed from whole body tissues of the bay scallop. A total of 5828 successful sequencing reactions yielded 4995 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) longer than 100 bp. Cluster and assembly analyses of the ESTs identified 637 contigs (consisting of 2853 sequences) and 2142 singletons, totaling 2779 unique sequences. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) analysis showed that the majority (73%) of the unique sequences had no significant homology (E-value >= 0.005) to sequences in GenBank. Among the 748 sequences with significant GenBank matches, 160 (21.4%) were for genes related to metabolism, 131 (17.5%) for cell/organism defense, 124 (16.6%) for gene/protein expression, 83 (11.1%) for cell structure/motility, 70 (9.4%) for cell signaling/communication, 17 (2.3%) for cell division, and 163 (21.8%) matched to genes of unknown functions. The list of host-defense genes included many genes with known and important roles in innate defense such as lectins, defensins, proteases, protease inhibitors, heat shock proteins, antioxidants, and Toll-like receptors. The study provides a significant number of ESTs for gene discovery and candidate genes for studying host defense in scallops and other molluscs.

栉孔扇贝抗鳗弧菌感染性状候选基因的多态性研究

栉孔扇贝（Chlamys farreri）是我国北方地区主要的养殖贝类之一，曾为沿海各省带来巨大的经济效益。但自1997年以来，陆续爆发的病害问题给扇贝养殖业造成了巨大的经济损失，严重影响了该产业的健康发展。目前认为培育抗病性强的扇贝优良品种是解决病害问题的根本途径。由于传统的育种方法费时费力，无法满足对良种的迫切需求，因此有必要通过分子手段加快抗病品种的培育步伐。标记辅助育种（marker assisted selection，MAS）是成功应用于动物育种中的分子手段之一，但由于缺乏与抗病性状相关的标记，MAS目前还无法在软体动物中得到应用。因此，寻找与抗病性状相关的分子标记是在软体动物中发展MAS的关键。 本研究利用鳗弧菌（Listonella anguillarum）对栉孔扇贝进行攻毒感染实验，初步得到敏感群体和抗病群体后采用PCR、PCR-RFLP、Bi-PASA PCR等方法研究了CfLysG、CfC1qDC和CfLITAF基因多态性及其与栉孔扇贝对鳗弧菌抗性的关系。 研究发现，栉孔扇贝CfLysG的基因序列中共有104个单核苷酸多态性（SNP）位点和29个插入/缺失（I/D）多态性位点。有17个多态性位点位于启动子区域，选择其中的-753 I/D、-391A/G和-284I/D多态性进行检测，发现这三个位点的基因型在敏感群体和抗病群体中的分布均符合Hardy-Weinberg平衡（P>0.05）。其中-753 ID基因型和-284 ID基因在抗病群体中的频率高于在敏感群体中的频率，但两者之间无显著性差异（P>0.05）。-391 AG基因型在抗病群体中的频率显著高于敏感群体（P=0.007），表明-391 AG基因型与栉孔扇贝对鳗弧菌的抗性显著相关。为验证这一相关性，对-391位点不同基因型的扇贝进行攻毒感染实验。统计发现，具有-391 AA基因型的扇贝累计死亡率显著高于具有-391 AG基因型的扇贝（P=0.001），进一步证实了CfLysG基因-391 AG基因型与栉孔扇贝对鳗弧菌的抗性显著相关。CfLysG基因的外显子共有3处SNP，其中仅第三外显子上的+3473 A/C为非同义突变。统计分析表明，+3473位点不同基因型在敏感群体中的分布频率符合Hardy-Weinberg平衡（P>0.05），而在抗病群体中则偏离Hardy-Weinberg平衡（P<0.01）。+3473 AA基因型在抗病群体中的频率显著高于在敏感群体中的频率（P=0.022），表明+3473 AA基因型与栉孔扇贝对鳗弧菌的抗性显著相关。CfLysG基因第1内含子存在+96 I/D和+487 I/D两处大片段的I/D多态性。统计发现，这两个位点的基因型在敏感群体和抗病群体中的分布频率均符合Hardy-Weinberg 平衡（P>0.05）。其中+96 DD基因型和+487 ID基因型在抗病群体中的频率均略高于在敏感群体中的频率，但两者之间无显著性差异（P>0.05）。表明这两个位点的多态性与栉孔扇贝对鳗弧菌的抗性无显著相关性。对CfLysG基因各多态性位点的统计分析表明，各位点之间存在不同程度的连锁不平衡，提示有单体型的存在。对19种频率>1%的单体型在敏感群体及抗病群体中的频率进行分析，发现-753 I/-391 G/-284 I/+96 I/+487 D/+3473 A单体型在抗病群体中的频率显著高于敏感群体（P=0.044），表明该单体型与栉孔扇贝对鳗弧菌的抗性显著相关。 在栉孔扇贝CfC1qDC基因cDNA序列上共发现14处SNP。对+423 T/C多态性与栉孔扇贝对鳗弧菌抗性的关系进行了分析。统计发现，+423位点各基因型在敏感群体和抗病群体中的分布均符合Hardy-Weinberg平衡（P>0.05）。+423 TT基因型在抗病群体中的频率显著高于在敏感群体中的频率（P=0.005），表明+423 TT基因型与栉孔扇贝对鳗弧菌的抗性显著相关。 在栉孔扇贝CfLITAF基因cDNA序列中共发现3处SNP及1处I/D多态性。对+145 I/D多态性进行研究，发现所有敏感个体及抗病个体中均同时存在+145 位点所有等位基因，表明+145位点多态性与栉孔扇贝对鳗弧菌的抗性不相关。 以上研究表明，栉孔扇贝CfLysG基因-391 AG基因型、+3473 AA基因型、-753 I/-391 G/-284 I/+96 I/+487 D/+3473 A单体型以及CfC1qDC基因+423 TT基因型与栉孔扇贝对鳗弧菌的抗性显著相关，提示它们可作为与栉孔扇贝抗病相关的候选分子标记应用于贝类抗病育种中，为贝类的标记辅助育种提供参考。此外，抗病相关分子标记的发现还有利于加深对扇贝发病机理的理解，并有助于发掘预防及治疗贝类疾病的新方法。

生物钟基因mPer2调控节律性免疫功能的机制研究

This project was carried out with the aims to investigate the mechanism of circadian immune regulation by one of the core Clock gene, mPer2. To achieve this, we selected mPer2 knock out (mPer2-/-) mice as the optimal animal model. Two different approaches were performed. In the first approach, we injected WT or mPer2-/- mice with an equal dosage of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and systematically measured serum corticosterone induction, expression of core Clock genes, as well as a key enzyme for corticosterone metabolism (mStAR) in adrenal gland. We found that the acute induction of corticosterone and mStAR were closely associated with the circadian immune response to LPS. Besides, real time quantitative PCR (q-PCR) and luciferase assay consistently showed that mStAR is a Clock controlled gene in adrenal gland, where its expression is negatively influenced by mPer2. In the second approach, expression level and circadian manner of 11 cytotoxicity regulation genes in WT or mPer2-/- mice bone marrow were measured by q-PCR in order to explore the candidate genes which could mediate the circadian immune regulation by mPer2. We found that expression level of Ly49C, Ly49I, and Nkg2d was significant down-regulated in mPer2-/- mice. Further, we found that daily expression of Ly49C and Nkg2d fluctuated in a circadian manner in WT mice, where these rhythms were disrupted in mPer2-/- mice. Thus, it was suggested that these two cytotoxic genes were two clock controlled genes whose circadian expression were regulated by mPer2. Taken together, our results suggested that corticosterone, mStAR, Ly49C, and Nkg2d were four candidate molecules that may mediate the circadian immune response regulation by mPer2.

Immunoprotective analysis of VhhP2, a Vibrio harveyi vaccine candidate

VhhP2 is an Outer membrane protein identified in a pathogenic Vibrio harveyi strain, T4, isolated from diseased fish. When used as a Subunit Vaccine, purified recombinant VhhP2 affords high level of protection upon Japanese flounder against V harveyi challenge. Vaccination with VhhP2 induced the expression of a number of immune-related genes, especially those encoding immunoglobulin M (IgM) and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II alpha. A VhhP2 surface display system, in the form of the fish commensal strain FIR harboring the vhhP2-expressing plasmid pJVP, was constructed. PF3/pJVP is able to produce and present recombinant VhhP2 on cell surface. Vaccination of fish with live PF3/pJVP via intraperitoneal injection elicited Strong immunoprotection. Vaccination of fish orally with live PF3/pJVP embedded in alginate microspheres also induced effective immunoprotection. In addition, a VhhP2-based surface display system was created, in which VhhP2 serves as a carrier for the Surface delivery of a heterologous Edwardsiella tarda immunogen, Et18, that is fused in-frame to VhhP2. DH5 alpha/pJVP18, which expresses and surface-displays the VhhP2-Et18 chimera, proved to be an effective vaccine that call protect fish against infections by V. harveyi and E. tarda to the extents comparable to those produced by vaccination with purified recombinant VhhP2 and Et18, respectively. These data suggest that VhhP2 may be applied as a vaccine and a vaccine carrier against infections by V. harveyi and other pathogens such as F. tarda. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Discovery of the genes in response to white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection in Fenneropenaeus chinensis through cDNA microarray

We used microarray technology to study differentially expressed genes in white spot syndrome virus (WSSV)-infected shrimp. A total of 3136 cDNA targets, including 1578 unique genes from a cephalothorax cDNA library and 1536 cDNA clones from reverse and forward suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) libraries of Fenneropenaeus chinensis, plus 14 negative and 8 blank control clones, were spotted onto a 18 x 18 mm area of NH2-modified glass slides. Gene expression patterns in the cephalothorax of shrimp at 6 h after WSSV injection and moribund shrimp naturally infected by WSSV were analyzed. A total of 105 elements on the arrays showed a similar regulation pattern in artificially infected shrimp and naturally infected moribund shrimp; parts of the results were confirmed by semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The up-regulated expression of immune-related genes, including heat shock proteins (HSP70 and HSP90), trehalose-phosphate synthase (TPS), ubiquitin C, and so forth, were observed when shrimp were challenged with WSSV. Genes including myosin LC2, ATP synthase A chain, and arginine kinase were found to be down-regulated after WSSV infection. The expression of housekeeping genes such as actin, elongation factor, and tubulin is not stable, and so these genes are not suitable as internal standards for semiquantitative RT-PCR when shrimp are challenged by WSSV. As a substitute, we found that triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) was an ideal candidate of interstandards in this situation.