Identification and expression analysis of two Toll-like receptor genes from sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus)

Differential gene expression in the respiratory tree of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus during aestivation

Sea cucumbers, Apostichopus japonicus, experience seasonally high water temperatures during the summer months and enter aestivation to survive. Aestivation is characterized by strong metabolic rate depression which is supported by a series of strategies including reorganizing metabolic processes, suppressing cell functions, enhancing cytoprotective mechanisms, and altered gene expression. The respiratory tree tissue of the sea cucumber is an excellent material for studying aestivation, undergoing obvious atrophy during aestivation. The present study analyzed the global gene expression profile of respiratory tree tissue of A. japonicus during aestivation by constructing and screening three libraries representing key stages of aestivation: non-aestivation (NA), deep-aestivation (DA), and arousal from aestivation (AA) using RNA-seq. A total of 1240, 1184 and 303 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified following the criteria of |log2 ratio|≥1 and FDR≤0.001 in comparisons of DA vs. NA, AA vs. NA and DA vs. AA. A set of respiratory tree specific DEGs was identified the first time and, in addition, common DEGs that were responsive to aestivation in both respiratory tree and intestine were identified. Functional analysis of DEGs was further performed by GO enrichment analysis and respiratory tree specific GO terms were screened out and provide interesting hints for further studies of the molecular regulation of aestivation in A. japonicus.

Proteomic identification of differentially expressed proteins in sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus coelomocytes after Vibrio splendidus infection

Skin ulceration syndrome (SUS) was the main limitation in the development of Apostichopus japonicus culture industries. To better understand how Vibrio splendidus modulates SUS outbreak, the immune response of A. japonicus coelomocytes after the pathogen challenge were investigated through comparative proteomics approach, and differentially expressed proteins were screened and characterized in the present study. A total of 40 protein spots representing 30 entries were identified at 24, 72 and 96 h post-infection. Of these proteins, 32 were up-regulated and 8 were down-regulated in the V. splendidus challenged samples compared to those of control. These differentially expressed proteins were mainly classified into four categories by GO analysis, in which approximate 33% of proteins showed to be related to immunity response. The mRNA expression levels of 6 differentially expressed proteins were further validated by qRT-PCR. Similar protein-mRNA-level expression patterns were detected in genes of phospholipase (spot 4), G protein (spot 20), annexin (spot 30) and filamin (spot 31). Whilst the levels of ficolin (spot 12) and calumenin (spot 14) transcripts were not corresponded with those of their translation products. These data provide a new insight to understand the molecular immune mechanism of sea cucumber responsive towards pathogen infection.

Two adaptor molecules of MyD88 and TRAF6 in Apostichopus japonicus Toll signaling cascade: molecular cloning and expression analysis

Myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) and tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) are two key adaptor molecules in Toll-like receptor signal transduction that triggers downstream cascades involved in innate immunity. Here we reported the isolation and characterization the full-length cDNAs of MyD88 and TRAF6 from sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (denoted as AjMyD88 and AjTRAF6, respectively). Both of two factors shared a remarkable high degree of structural conservation with their mammalian and Drosophila orthologs, such as a typical death domain (DD) and a conservative Toll/IL-1R (TIR) domain for the deduced amino acid of AjMyD88, a zinc finger of RING-type, two zinc fingers of TRAF-type, a coiled-coil region, and a MATH domain for that of AjTRAF6. Constitutive expression patterns were also observed in the two genes with different expression levels. AjMyD88 mRNA transcripts were higher expressed in intestine and respiratory trees, and AjTRAF6 were abundant in coelomocytes and tentacle. During Vibrio splendidus challenge experiment, the expression levels of two genes were increased significantly with larger amplitude and longer duration in AjTRAF6. The peak expression levels were detected at 6 h for AjMyD88 with 1.80-fold increase, and at 24 h for AjTRAF6 with 2.73-fold increase compared with that in the control group. All these results suggested that AjMyD88 and AjTRAF6 might be involved into immune response toward V. splendidus challenge.

Divergent metabolic responses of Apostichopus japonicus suffered from skin ulceration syndrome and pathogen challenge

Skin ulceration syndrome (SUS) is the main limitation in the development of Apostichopus japonicus culture industries, in which Vibrio splendidus has been well documented as one of the major pathogens. However, the intrinsic mechanisms toward pathogen challenge and disease outbreak remain largely unknown at the metabolic level. In this work, the metabolic responses were investigated in muscles of sea cucumber among natural SUS-diseased and V. splendidus-challenged samples. The pathogen did not induce obvious biological effects in A. japonicus samples after infection for the first 24 h. An enhanced energy storage (or reduced energy demand) and immune responses were observed in V. splendidus-challenged A. japonicus samples at 48 h, as marked by increased glucose and branched chain amino acids, respectively. Afterward, infection of V. splendidus induced significant increases in energy demand in A. japonicus samples at both 72 and 96 h, confirmed by decreased glucose and glycogen, and increased ATP. Surprisingly, high levels of glycogen and glucose and low levels of threonine, alanine, arginine, glutamate, glutamine, taurine and ATP were founded in natural SUS-diseased sea cucumber. Our present results provided essential metabolic information about host-pathogen interaction for sea cucumber, and informed that the metabolic biomarkers induced by V. splendidus were not usable for the prediction of SUS disease in practice.

Characterization of two negative regulators of the Toll-like receptor pathway in Apostichopus japonicus: inhibitor of NF-κB and Toll-interacting protein

The Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling cascade plays a central role in host cell recognition and responses to microbial pathogens via the specific recognition of distinct pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). However, no negative regulators of the TLR-signaling cascade have been described in sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus). In the present study, two negative regulators known as the inhibitor of NF-κB (IκB) and Toll-interacting protein (Tollip) have been identified in coelomocytes of this species using transcriptome sequencing and RACE (denoted as AjIκB and AjTollip, respectively). Both of these factors share a remarkably high degree of structural conservation with their mammalian orthologs, such as a central ankyrin repeat domain (ARD) for the deduced amino acids of AjIκB and the C2 and CUE domains for AjTollip. Constitutive expression patterns with differential expression levels were observed for these two genes. Moreover, mRNA transcript expression for AjIκB and AjTollip was highest in the tentacle and abundant in the muscle, respectively. Vibrio splendidus challenge study revealed that the expression level of these two genes was decreased within the first 48 h with 0.53-fold and 0.61-fold decrease compared with that in the control group for AjIκB and AjTollip, respectively. Taken together, these results indicated that AjIκB and AjTollip functioned as negative regulators in the TLR cascade in response to a V. splendidus challenge.