Cui Jie, Zhang Zihao, Zhang Zhaoxi, Zhang Shuang, Zhang Haikun, Qu Yifan, Yu Guoqing, Liu Yaqiong, Han Yijing, Huang Baoyu, Wang Xiaotong
School of Fisheries, Ludong University, Yantai, 264025, China.
National Engineering Research Center for Agricultural Products Logistics, Shandong Institute of Commerce and Technology, Ji'nan, 250103, China.
Fish Shellfish Immunol. 2025 Oct;165:110585. doi: 10.1016/j.fsi.2025.110585. Epub 2025 Jul 21.
The Zhikong scallop (Chlamys farreri) is an economically important mollusk widely cultivated in marine aquaculture worldwide. However, the substantial threat posed by diseases to the scallop aquaculture industry necessitates an urgent investigation into innate immunity mechanisms, including apoptosis, in C. farreri. In this study, the scallop executioner caspase gene, Cf-caspase-3/7, was successfully cloned and its functional characteristics were explored. The results demonstrated that Cf-caspase-3/7 encodes 343 amino acids and contains the highly conserved caspase catalytic domain. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that Cf-caspase-3/7 belongs to the molluscan executioner caspase family. The basic expression patterns analysis showed that Cf-caspase-3/7 is present in all scallop tissues, with the highest expression detected in the gonadal tissue. The Cf-caspase-3/7 protein was primarily found within the cytoplasmic compartment. Furthermore, the upregulated expression of Cf-caspase-3/7 in response to various pathogen-associated molecular patterns, including poly (I:C), peptidoglycan, and lipopolysaccharide, as well as its dose-dependent activation of the reporter genes for NF-κB and IFNβ, points to a possible function in regulating the scallops' innate immune response. HEK293T cells showed significant apoptotic characteristics and substantially elevated caspase-3 activity after transfection with the Cf-caspase-3/7 protein expression plasmid, highlighting the ability of Cf-caspase-3/7 to trigger apoptosis. In summary, these results provide a theoretical foundation for breeding disease-resistant scallops in aquaculture and deepen our knowledge of the functional significance of caspase genes in mollusks.
栉孔扇贝（Chlamys farreri）是一种具有重要经济价值的软体动物，在全球海水养殖中广泛养殖。然而，疾病对扇贝养殖业构成的重大威胁使得迫切需要对栉孔扇贝的先天免疫机制进行研究，包括细胞凋亡。在本研究中，成功克隆了扇贝刽子手半胱天冬酶基因Cf-caspase-3/7，并对其功能特性进行了探索。结果表明，Cf-caspase-3/7编码343个氨基酸，包含高度保守的半胱天冬酶催化结构域。系统发育分析证实Cf-caspase-3/7属于软体动物刽子手半胱天冬酶家族。基本表达模式分析表明，Cf-caspase-3/7存在于所有扇贝组织中，在性腺组织中表达最高。Cf-caspase-3/7蛋白主要存在于细胞质区室中。此外，Cf-caspase-3/7在对包括聚（I:C）、肽聚糖和脂多糖在内的各种病原体相关分子模式的反应中上调表达，以及其对NF-κB和IFNβ报告基因的剂量依赖性激活，表明其在调节扇贝先天免疫反应中可能发挥作用。用Cf-caspase-3/7蛋白表达质粒转染HEK293T细胞后，细胞呈现出明显的凋亡特征，半胱天冬酶-3活性显著升高，这突出了Cf-caspase-3/7触发细胞凋亡的能力。总之，这些结果为水产养殖中培育抗病扇贝提供了理论基础，并加深了我们对软体动物中半胱天冬酶基因功能意义的认识。
