Black carp STING functions importantly in innate immune defense against RNA virus

Abstract

Stimulator of interferon genes (STING) is a central and multifaceted mediator in the innate immune response of higher vertebrates. To explore its role in teleost fish, the STING homolog of black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) (bcSTING) has been cloned and characterized in this paper. bcSTING transcription in Mylopharyngodon piceus fin (MPF) cells increased remarkably in response to GCRV and SVCV infection, or poly (I:C) stimulation. bcSTING migrated around 42 KDa in immunoblot assay and was identified as a cytosolic protein locating on ER majorly through immunofluorescence staining. Under condition of SVCV/GCRV infection or poly (I:C) stimulation, the subcellular distribution of bcSTING majorly displayed on mitochondria, which overlapped with that of bcMAVS. HA-bcSTING instead of bcSTING-HA presented strong IFN-inducing activity in reporter assay and antiviral ability against both SVCV and GCRV in plaque assay. Site mutation of serine (S) on C-terminus of bcSTING demonstrated that both S371 and S379 were crucial for its mediated signaling. Taken together, our study support the conclusion that bcSTING plays an important role in host innate immune defense against RNA virus such as SVCV and GCRV, in which its C-terminus functions crucially.