Identification and characterization of two highly homologous lysozymes from red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii

Yin Cheng-Ming; Li Ning-Qiu; Ren Li-Chao; Wang Zhe; Chai Lian-Qin; Lan Jiang-Feng

doi:10.1016/j.fsirep.2021.100017

Identification and characterization of two highly homologous lysozymes from red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii

Fish Shellfish Immunol Rep. 2021 Jul 4:2:100017. doi: 10.1016/j.fsirep.2021.100017. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Authors

Yin Cheng-Ming¹, Li Ning-Qiu², Ren Li-Chao¹, Wang Zhe³, Chai Lian-Qin³, Lan Jiang-Feng¹

Affiliations

¹ Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Biotechnology and Disease Control and Prevention, College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, China.
² Pearl River Fishery Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Key Laboratory of Fishery Drug Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Immune Technology, Guangzhou 510380, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Cotton Biology, School of Life Sciences Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China.

Abstract

Lysozyme is an important immune effector in innate immunity against pathogen infection. But the study on the active region of lysozyme is limited. In this study, two highly homologous lysozymes were identified from crayfish (designated as PcLysi4 and PcLysi5). The molecular structures of PcLysi4 and PcLysi5 were predicted by SWISS-MODEL with the structure of lysozyme (PDB accession No. 4PJ2.2.B) as model. The results suggested that the structure of PcLysi4 and PcLysi5 were highly similar, but there were more α-helices at positions (127-139) and longer β-sheet at positions (49-57) in the structure of PcLysi5 than in that of PcLysi4. The antibacterial and antiviral functions of the two lysozymes were investigated. PcLysi4 and PcLysi5 could promote the bacterial clearance ability of crayfish, and increase the survival rate of Vibrio-infected crayfish. Further study showed that PcLysi5 inhibited WSSV replication, and enhanced the survival rate of WSSV-infected crayfish. There was no evidence that PcLysi4 has an influence on WSSV replication. Furthermore, PcLysi5 was detected to interact with envelope protein VP24 of WSSV. Our results would provide a new reference for the study on active region of lysozyme.

Keywords: Antimicrobial peptides; Lysozyme; Procambarus clarkii; White spot syndrome virus.