Ajpacifastin-like is involved in the immune response of Apostichopus japonicus challenged by Vibrio splendidus.

Abstract

Pacifastin proteins are previously found to regulate the phenoloxidase system in invertebrates and arthropods. In this study, the immune response that was regulated by Ajpacifastin-like in the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus was determined. RNA interference was used to knock down the expression of the Ajpacifastin-like gene in A. japonicus, followed by challenge with Vibrio splendidus, and the colony count showed that the survival of V. splendidus in the si-Ajpacifastin group increased 4.64-fold compared to that of the control group. The purified recombinant Ajpacifastin-like showed an inhibitory effect on the extracellular protease activity of the supernatant collected from the V. splendidus culture. Consequently, a comparative transcriptome analysis of the coelomocytes from the control group and the si-Ajpacifastin group was performed to explore the global regulatory effect of the Ajpacifastin-like. A total of 1486 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, including 745 upregulated genes and 741 downregulated genes. GO enrichment showed that the DEGs were mainly enriched in translation, cytosolic ribosomal subunit and structural constituent of ribosome. KEGG analysis showed that the DEGs were significantly enriched in the retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)-like receptor signaling pathway, antigen processing and presentation, toll-like receptor signaling pathway, mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway, nuclear factor-kappa B signaling pathway and other immune-related pathways. Furthermore, real-time reverse transcriptase PCR was used to determine the RNA levels of six DEGs, i.e., cathepsinB, CYLD, caspase8, TRAF6, hsp90 and FADD, to verify the RNA-seq results. Overall, our results specified the immune response and pathways of A. japonicus in which Ajpacifastin-like was involved in.