Living fossils are lineages that have retained plesiomorphic traits through long time periods. It is expected that such lineages have both originated and diversified long ago. Such expectations have recently been challenged in some textbook examples of living fossils, notably in extant cycads and coelacanths. Using a phylogenetic approach, we tested the patterns of the origin and diversification of liphistiid spiders, a clade of spiders considered to be living fossils due to their retention of arachnid plesiomorphies and their exclusive grouping in Mesothelae, an ancient clade sister to all modern spiders. Facilitated by original sampling throughout their Asian range, we here provide the phylogenetic framework necessary for reconstructing liphistiid biogeographic history. All phylogenetic analyses support the monophyly of Liphistiidae and of eight genera. As the fossil evidence supports a Carboniferous Euramerican origin of Mesothelae, our dating analyses postulate a long eastward over-land dispersal towards the Asian origin of Liphistiidae during the Palaeogene (39-58 Ma). Contrary to expectations, diversification within extant liphistiid genera is relatively recent, in the Neogene and Late Palaeogene (4-24 Ma). While no over-water dispersal events are needed to explain their evolutionary history, the history of liphistiid spiders has the potential to play prominently in vicariant biogeographic studies.
Gene discovery in the Malaysian giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) has been limited to small scale data collection, despite great interest in various research fields related to the commercial significance of this species. Next generation sequencing technologies that have been developed recently and enabled whole transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq), have allowed generation of large scale functional genomics data sets in a shorter time than was previously possible. Using this technology, transcriptome sequencing of three tissue types: hepatopancreas, gill and muscle, has been undertaken to generate functional genomics data for M. rosenbergii at a massive scale. De novo assembly of 75-bp paired end Ilumina reads has generated 102,230 unigenes. Sequence homology search and in silico prediction have identified known and novel protein coding candidate genes (∼24%), non-coding RNA, and repetitive elements in the transcriptome. Potential markers consisting of simple sequence repeats associated with known protein coding genes have been successfully identified. Using KEGG pathway enrichment, differentially expressed genes in different tissues were systematically represented. The functions of gill and hepatopancreas in the context of neuroactive regulation, metabolism, reproduction, environmental stress and disease responses are described and support relevant experimental studies conducted previously in M. rosenbergii and other crustaceans. This large scale gene discovery represents the most extensive transcriptome data for freshwater prawn. Comparison with model organisms has paved the path to address the possible conserved biological entities shared between vertebrates and crustaceans. The functional genomics resources generated from this study provide the basis for constructing hypotheses for future molecular research in the freshwater shrimp.
Dermatophagoides farinae is one of the major house dust mite (HDM) species that cause allergic diseases. N-terminally His-tagged recombinant Der f 21 (rDer f 21), a group 21 allergen, with the signal peptide truncated was successfully overexpressed in an Escherichia coli expression system. The purified rDer f 21 protein was initially crystallized using the sitting-drop vapour-diffusion method. Well diffracting protein crystals were obtained after optimization of the crystallization conditions using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method with a reservoir solution consisting of 0.19 M Tris-HCl pH 8.0, 32% PEG 400 at 293 K. X-ray diffraction data were collected to 1.49 Å resolution using an in-house X-ray source. The crystal belonged to the C-centered monoclinic space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a = 123.46, b = 27.71, c = 90.25 Å, β = 125.84°. The calculated Matthews coefficient (VM) of 2.06 Å(3) Da(-1) suggests that there are two molecules per asymmetric unit, with a solvent content of 40.3%. Despite sharing high sequence identity with Blo t 5 (45%) and Blo t 21 (41%), both of which were determined to be monomeric in solution, size-exclusion chromatography, static light scattering and self-rotation function analysis indicate that rDer f 21 is likely to be a dimeric protein.
The occurrences of multiple drug-resistant strains have been relentlessly increasing in recent years. The aquaculture industry has encountered major disease outbreaks and crucially affected by this situation. The usage of non-specific chemicals and antibiotics expedites the stimulation of resistant strains. Triggering the natural defense mechanism would provide an effective and safest way of protecting the host system. Hence, we have investigated the innate immune function of serine/threonine-protein kinase (STPK) in Macrobrachium rosenbergii (Mr). The in-silico protein analysis resulted in the identification of cationic antimicrobial peptide, MrSL-19, with interesting properties from STPK of M. rosenbergii. Antimicrobial assay, FACS and SEM analysis demonstrated that the peptide potentially inhibits Staphylococcus aureus by interacting with its membrane. The toxic study on MrSL-19 demonstrated that the peptide is not toxic against HEK293 cells as well as human erythrocytes. This investigation showed the significant innate immune property of an efficient cationic antimicrobial peptide, MrSL-19 of STPK from M. rosenbergii.
Der p 2 is a major dust mite allergen and >80% of mite allergic individuals have specific IgE to this allergen. Although it is well characterized in terms of allergenicity, there is still some ambiguity in terms of its biological function. Three-dimensional structural analysis of Der p 2 and its close homologues indicate the presence of a hydrophobic cavity which can potentially bind to lipid molecules. In this study, we aimed to identify the potential ligand of Der p 2. Using a liposome pulldown assay, we show that recombinant Der p 2 binds to liposomes prepared with exogenous cholesterol in a dose dependent fashion. Next, an ELISA based assay using immobilized lipids was used to study binding specificities of other lipid molecules. Cholesterol was the preferred ligand of Der p 2 among 11 different lipids tested. Two homologues of Der p 2, Der f 2 and Der f 22 also bound to cholesterol. Further, using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), we confirmed that cholesterol is the natural ligand of Der p 2. Three amino acid residues of Der p 2, V104, V106 and V110 are possible cholesterol binding sites, as alanine mutations of these residues showed a significant decrease in binding (p
It is well known that exosomes could serve as anti-microbial immune factors in animals. However, despite growing evidences have shown that the homeostasis of the hemolymph microbiota was vital for immune regulation in crustaceans, the relationship between exosomes and hemolymph microbiota homeostasis during pathogenic bacteria infection has not been addressed. Here, we reported that exosomes released from Vibrio parahaemolyticus-infected mud crabs (Scylla paramamosain) could help to maintain the homeostasis of hemolymph microbiota and have a protective effect on the mortality of the host during the infection process. We further confirmed that miR-224 was densely packaged in these exosomes, resulting in the suppression of HSP70 and disruption of the HSP70-TRAF6 complex, then the released TRAF6 further interacted with Ecsit to regulate the production of mitochondrial ROS (mROS) and the expression of Anti-lipopolysaccharide factors (ALFs) in recipient hemocytes, which eventually affected hemolymph microbiota homeostasis in response to the pathogenic bacteria infection in mud crab. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first document that reports the role of exosome in the hemolymph microbiota homeostasis modulation during pathogen infection, which reveals the crosstalk between exosomal miRNAs and innate immune response in crustaceans.
Diseases have remained the major issue for shrimp aquaculture industry for decades by which different shrimp species demonstrated alternative disease resistance or tolerance. However, there had been insufficient studies on the underlying host mechanisms of such phenomenon. Hence, in this study, the main objective involves gaining a deeper understanding into the functional importance of shrimp STAT gene from the aspects of expression, sequence, structure, and associated genes. STAT gene was selected primarily because of its vital signalling roles in stress, endocrine, and immune response. The differential gene expressions of Macrobrachium rosenbergii STAT (MrST) and Penaeus monodon STAT (PmST) under White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) and Vibrio parahaemolyticus/VpAHPND infections were identified through qPCR analysis. Notably, during both pathogenic infections, MrST demonstrated significant gene expression down-regulations (during either early or later post-infection time points) whereas PmST showed only significant gene expression up-regulations. Important sequence conservation or divergence was highlighted through STAT sequence comparison especially amino acid alterations at 614 aa [K (Lysine) to E (Glutamic Acid)] and 629 aa [F (Phenylalanine) to V (Valine)] from PmST (AY327491.1) to PmST (disease tolerant strain). There were significant differences observed between in silico characterized structures of MrST and PmST proteins. Important functional differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the aspects of stress, endocrine, immune, signalling, and structural were uncovered through comparative transcriptomic analysis. The DEGs associated with STAT functioning were identified including inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor, hsp90, caspase, ATP binding cassette transmembrane transporter, C-type Lectin, HMGB, ALF1, ALF3, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase, and TBK1. The main findings of this study are STAT differential gene expression patterns, sequence divergence, structural differences, and associated functional DEGs. These findings can be further utilized for shrimp health or host response diagnostic studies. STAT gene can also be proposed as a suitable candidate for future studies of shrimp innate immune enhancement.
In this study, we have reported a full length of small heat shock protein 37 (designated MrHSP37) gene, identified from the transcriptome database of freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii. The complete gene sequence of the MrHSP37 is 2,425 base pairs in length, and encodes 338 amino acids. MrHSP37 contains a long heat shock protein family profile in the amino acid sequence between 205 and 288. The mRNA expressions of MrHSP37 in healthy and the infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV) challenged M. rosenbergii were examined using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). MrHSP37 is highly expressed in hepatopancreas and all the other tissues (walking leg, gills, muscle, stomach, haemocyte, intestine, pleopods, brain and eye stalk) of M. rosenbergii taken for analysis. The expression is strongly up-regulated after IHHNV challenge. To understand its biological activity, the recombinant MrHSP37 gene was constructed and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). The results of ATPase assay showed that the recombinant MrHSP37 protein exhibited apparent ATPase activity which increased with the concentration of the protein. And also the purified recombinant MrHSP37 protein was used for thermal aggregation assay (chaperone activity). It showed that the recombinant MrHSP37 protein is an active chaperone in this assay. Taken together, these results suggest that MrHSP37 is potentially involved in the immune responses against IHHNV challenge in M. rosenbergii.
Coronavirus-like organisms have been previously identified in Arthropod ectoparasites (such as ticks and unfed cat flea). Yet, the question regarding the possible role of these arthropods as SARS-CoV-2 passive/biological transmission vectors is still poorly explored. In this study, we performed in silico structural and binding energy calculations to assess the risks associated with possible ectoparasite transmission. We found sufficient similarity between ectoparasite ACE and human ACE2 protein sequences to build good quality 3D-models of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike:ACE complex to assess the impacts of ectoparasite mutations on complex stability. For several species (e.g., water flea, deer tick, body louse), our analyses showed no significant destabilisation of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike:ACE complex, suggesting these species would bind the viral Spike protein. Our structural analyses also provide structural rationale for interactions between the viral Spike and the ectoparasite ACE proteins. Although we do not have experimental evidence of infection in these ectoparasites, the predicted stability of the complex suggests this is possible, raising concerns of a possible role in passive transmission of the virus to their human hosts.
Mannose-binding lectin (MBL), an antimicrobial protein, is an important component of innate immune system which recognizes repetitive sugar groups on the surface of bacteria and viruses leading to activation of the complement system. In this study, we reported a complete molecular characterization of cDNA encoded for MBL from freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (Mr). Two short peptides (MrMBL-N20: (20)AWNTYDYMKREHSLVKPYQG(39) and MrMBL-C16: (307)GGLFYVKHKEQQRKRF(322)) were synthesized from the MrMBL polypeptide. The purity of the MrMBL-N20 (89%) and MrMBL-C16 (93%) peptides were confirmed by MS analysis (MALDI-ToF). The purified peptides were used for further antimicrobial characterization including minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assay, kinetics of bactericidal efficiency and analysis of hemolytic capacity. The peptides exhibited antimicrobial activity towards all the Gram-negative bacteria taken for analysis, whereas they showed the activity towards only a few selected Gram-positive bacteria. MrMBL-C16 peptides produced the highest inhibition towards both the Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria compared to the MrMBL-N20. Both peptides do not produce any inhibition against Bacillus sps. The kinetics of bactericidal efficiency showed that the peptides drastically reduced the number of surviving bacterial colonies after 24 h incubation. The results of hemolytic activity showed that both peptides produced strong activity at higher concentration. However, MrMBL-C16 peptide produced the highest activity compared to the MrMBL-N20 peptide. Overall, the results indicated that the peptides can be used as bactericidal agents. The MrMBL protein sequence was characterized using various bioinformatics tools including phylogenetic analysis and structure prediction. We also reported the MrMBL gene expression pattern upon viral and bacterial infection in M. rosenbergii gills. It could be concluded that the prawn MBL may be one of the important molecule which is involved in antimicrobial mechanism. Moreover, MrMBL derived MrMBL-N20 and MrMBL-C16 peptides are important antimicrobial peptides for the recognition and eradication of viral and bacterial pathogens.
This study reports the comprehensive comparative information of two different detoxification enzymes such as glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) delta and kappa from freshwater giant prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (designated as MrGSTD and MrGSTK) by investigating their in-silico characters and mRNA modulation against various biotic and abiotic oxidative stressors. The physico-chemical properties of these cDNA and their polypeptide structure were analyzed using various bioinformatics program. The analysis indicated the variation in size of the polypeptides, presence or absence of domains and motifs and structure. Homology and phylogenetic analysis revealed that MrGSTD shared maximum identity (83%) with crustaceans GST delta, whereas MrGSTK fell in arthropods GST kappa. It is interesting to note that MrGSTD and MrGSTK shared only 21% identity; it indicated their structural difference. Structural analysis indicated that MrGSTD to be canonical dimer like shape and MrGSTK appeared to be butterfly dimer like shape, in spite of four β-sheets being conserved in both GSTs. Tissue specific gene expression analysis showed that both MrGSTD and MrGSTK are highly expressed in immune organs such as haemocyte and hepatopancreas, respectively. To understand the role of mRNA modulation of MrGSTD and MrGSTK, the prawns were inducted with oxidative stressors such as bacteria (Vibrio harveyi), virus [white spot syndrome virus (WSSV)] and heavy metal, cadmium (Cd). The analysis revealed an interesting fact that both MrGSTD and MrGSTK showed higher (P