Abstract

Peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs), which are structurally conserved innate immune molecules in invertebrate and vertebrate animals, play the important roles in regulation of innate immune responses . In this paper, three PGRP genes of spotted sea bass, Lateolabrax maculatus , were cloned, designated as Ssb-PGRP2 , Ssb - PGRP-L2 and Ssb-PGRP-SC2 , respectively. Sequence analysis showed that the deduced amino acid sequences of Ssb-PGRP2, Ssb-PGRP-L2 and Ssb-PGRP-SC2 proteins contained respectively 468, 482 and 167 amino acid residues, and had the typical structural features of PGRPs, i.e. conserved PGRP domain and Zn 2+ binding domain including four specific amino acid residues which were required for amidase activity. q-PCR analysis of total mRNA showed that the mRNA expression of three PGRP genes were detected in all the examined tissues and the expression patterns of Ssb-PGRP2 , Ssb-PGRP-L2 and Ssb-PGRP-SC2 were different. After injected with LPS , Poly (I:C) and Edwardsiella tarda , there was a clear time-dependent expression pattern for each of the three PGRP genes in head kidney , spleen , intestine and gill of the spotted sea bass. In our study, three recombinant proteins corresponding to the three members of the peptidoglycan recognition protein family were expressed and purified. Moreover, all of the three recombinant PGRP proteins significantly inhibited bacterial survival and growth, and expressed bactericidal effects on Vibrio harveyi , Staphylococcus aureus and Edwardsiella tarda . In particular, it was firstly verified that their antimicrobial activity presented the superimposed effect. Overall, these findings indicated that three PGRP genes of spotted sea bass were at least involved in host defense against bacterial infections.