Domain repeats related to innate immunity in the South African abalone, Haliotis midae

Abstract

Molluscs predominately use the cellular defence system as the primary mechanism of defence against pathogenic infection, in which haemocytes play a pivotal role. Haliotis midae is a commercially important South African species that it is susceptible to bacterial pathogens, fungal and yeast infections in the farming environment. The current study aims to enrich the current knowledge regarding H. midae innate immunity by investigating the presence and evolution of domain repeats. The bioinformatics approach used in this study, detected five repeat families in the H. midae transcriptome. These repeats families include mixed alpha and beta (leucine-rich and ankyrin), spectrin repeats, beta-propellers (WD40) and alfa-structure repeat (TPR-like). The expansion of key gene families related to host defence may be important to abalone adaptation to life in a pathogen-rich environment.

Keywords: Expansion; Gastropods; Haliotidae; Immunity; Repeat domains.