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Gualandi N, Fracarossi D, Riommi D, Sollitto M, Greco S, Mardirossian M, Pacor S, Hori T, Pallavicini A, Gerdol M. Unveiling the Impact of Gene Presence/Absence Variation in Driving Inter-Individual Sequence Diversity within the CRP-I Gene Family in Mytilus spp. Genes (Basel) 2023; 14:genes14040787. [PMID: 37107545 PMCID: PMC10138031 DOI: 10.3390/genes14040787] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Revised: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 03/22/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Mussels (Mytilus spp.) tolerate infections much better than other species living in the same marine coastal environment thanks to a highly efficient innate immune system, which exploits a remarkable diversification of effector molecules involved in mucosal and humoral responses. Among these, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are subjected to massive gene presence/absence variation (PAV), endowing each individual with a potentially unique repertoire of defense molecules. The unavailability of a chromosome-scale assembly has so far prevented a comprehensive evaluation of the genomic arrangement of AMP-encoding loci, preventing an accurate ascertainment of the orthology/paralogy relationships among sequence variants. Here, we characterized the CRP-I gene cluster in the blue mussel Mytilus edulis, which includes about 50 paralogous genes and pseudogenes, mostly packed in a small genomic region within chromosome 5. We further reported the occurrence of widespread PAV within this family in the Mytilus species complex and provided evidence that CRP-I peptides likely adopt a knottin fold. We functionally characterized the synthetic peptide sCRP-I H1, assessing the presence of biological activities consistent with other knottins, revealing that mussel CRP-I peptides are unlikely to act as antimicrobial agents or protease inhibitors, even though they may be used as defense molecules against infections from eukaryotic parasites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolò Gualandi
- Area of Neuroscience, International School for Advanced Studies, 34136 Trieste, Italy;
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy; (D.F.); (D.R.); (M.S.); (S.G.); (M.M.); (S.P.); (A.P.)
| | - Davide Fracarossi
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy; (D.F.); (D.R.); (M.S.); (S.G.); (M.M.); (S.P.); (A.P.)
| | - Damiano Riommi
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy; (D.F.); (D.R.); (M.S.); (S.G.); (M.M.); (S.P.); (A.P.)
| | - Marco Sollitto
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy; (D.F.); (D.R.); (M.S.); (S.G.); (M.M.); (S.P.); (A.P.)
- Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, University of Primorska, 6000 Koper, Slovenia
| | - Samuele Greco
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy; (D.F.); (D.R.); (M.S.); (S.G.); (M.M.); (S.P.); (A.P.)
| | - Mario Mardirossian
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy; (D.F.); (D.R.); (M.S.); (S.G.); (M.M.); (S.P.); (A.P.)
| | - Sabrina Pacor
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy; (D.F.); (D.R.); (M.S.); (S.G.); (M.M.); (S.P.); (A.P.)
| | - Tiago Hori
- Atlantic Aqua Farms Ltd., Vernon Bridge, PE C0A 2E0, Canada;
| | - Alberto Pallavicini
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy; (D.F.); (D.R.); (M.S.); (S.G.); (M.M.); (S.P.); (A.P.)
- Anton Dohrn Zoological Station, 80121 Naples, Italy
| | - Marco Gerdol
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy; (D.F.); (D.R.); (M.S.); (S.G.); (M.M.); (S.P.); (A.P.)
- Correspondence:
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