Hernández-Pasos Josué, Valentín-Tirado Griselle, García-Arrarás José E
Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
School of Medicine, University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol. 2017 May;328(3):259-274. doi: 10.1002/jez.b.22731. Epub 2017 Feb 23.
Melanotransferrin (MTf) is a protein associated with oncogenetic, developmental, and immune processes which function remains unclear. The MTf gene has been reported in numerous vertebrate and invertebrate species, including echinoderms. We now report the finding of four different MTfs in the transcriptome of the sea cucumber Holothuria glaberrima. Sequence studies and phylogenetic analyses were done to ascertain the similarities among the putative proteins and their relationship with other transferrin family members. The genes were shown to be differentially expressed in various holothurian organs and to respond differently when the animals were challenged with the immune system activator lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Moreover, the four genes were found to be highly overexpressed during the early stages of intestinal regeneration. The finding of four different genes in the holothurian is particularly surprising, because only one MTf gene has been reported in all other animal species sequenced to date. This finding, combined with the increase expression during intestinal regeneration, suggests a new possible function of MTf in organ regenerative processes.
黑素转铁蛋白（MTf）是一种与肿瘤发生、发育和免疫过程相关的蛋白质，其功能尚不清楚。MTf基因已在包括棘皮动物在内的众多脊椎动物和无脊椎动物物种中被报道。我们现在报告在光滑海参的转录组中发现了四种不同的MTf。进行了序列研究和系统发育分析，以确定推定蛋白质之间的相似性及其与其他转铁蛋白家族成员的关系。这些基因在各种海参器官中表现出差异表达，并且当动物受到免疫系统激活剂脂多糖（LPS）刺激时反应不同。此外，发现这四个基因在肠道再生早期高度过表达。在海参中发现四个不同的基因特别令人惊讶，因为迄今为止在所有其他已测序的动物物种中仅报道了一个MTf基因。这一发现，结合在肠道再生过程中的表达增加，表明MTf在器官再生过程中可能具有新的功能。
