Marine Biotechnology Research Center, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Cells and Developmental Biology, Institute of Developmental Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Shanda Nan Lu 27#, Jinan, Shandong 250100, PR China.
Fish Shellfish Immunol. 2013 Aug;35(2):564-71. doi: 10.1016/j.fsi.2013.05.020. Epub 2013 May 31.
Akirin is a recently described nuclear protein that is thought to be required for the NF-κB signaling pathway in insects and vertebrates. Here, functional investigations of akirin are described in the basal chordate amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense in an attempt to link this gene between insect and vertebrate lineages. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that amphioxus akirin represented a true ortholog of the two characterized vertebrate akirin paralogs. Amphioxus akirin, coding 219 amino acids with two nuclear localization signal (NLS) sequences and one 14-3-3 binding motif, was widely expressed in various tissues and up-regulated in response to Escherichia coli (Gram-negative bacterium) and Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive bacterium) challenges. Furthermore, amphioxus akirin was strictly localized to the nucleus of HEK293T cells in a confocal analysis. Our work identified and characterized for the first time an amphioxus akirin homolog and will promote a better understanding of the evolution and transcriptional network of the akirin gene family.
Akirin 是一种最近描述的核蛋白，被认为是昆虫和脊椎动物中 NF-κB 信号通路所必需的。在这里，我们尝试在基干脊索动物文昌鱼（Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense）中对 akirin 进行功能研究，以将该基因连接到昆虫和脊椎动物谱系之间。系统发育分析表明，文昌鱼的 akirin 代表了两种已鉴定的脊椎动物 akirin 同源物的真正直系同源物。文昌鱼的 akirin 编码 219 个氨基酸，具有两个核定位信号（NLS）序列和一个 14-3-3 结合基序，广泛表达于各种组织中，并在大肠杆菌（革兰氏阴性菌）和金黄色葡萄球菌（革兰氏阳性菌）的刺激下上调。此外，在共聚焦分析中，文昌鱼的 akirin 被严格定位于 HEK293T 细胞的核内。我们的工作首次鉴定并描述了文昌鱼的 akirin 同源物，这将促进更好地理解 akirin 基因家族的进化和转录网络。
