The role of three heat shock protein genes in the immune response to challenge in marbled eel, .

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are highly conserved molecular chaperones that play critical roles in both innate and adaptive immunity. However, little information about HSPs from marbled eel is known. In this study, the full-length (2527 bp), (2443 bp) and (2247 bp) were first cloned from , using rapid amplification of cDNA ends, containing open reading frames of 2181, 1932 and 1950 bp in length, and encoding proteins with 726, 643 and 649 amino acids, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequences of three shared a high homology similarity with other migratory fish. Real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to evaluate tissue-specific distribution and mRNA expression levels of three subjected to infection with . The mRNA expression of three in eight tested tissues, namely liver, heart, muscle, gill, spleen, kidney, brain and intestine, of juvenile was evaluated to reveal the major expression distribution in liver, intestine, muscle and heart. After pathogen challenge treatments, mRNA transcriptions of three revealed a significant regulation at various time points in the same tissue. All these findings suggest that may be involved in the immune response in .