Abstract:

Nitric oxide (NO) signaling is involved in many physiological processes in vertebrates and invertebrates. In mammals, NO plays as an endothelium-derived relaxing factor in the form of a simple unstable gas, as a neurotransmitter in the central and peripheral nervous systems and as an immune effector mediated by macrophages. In crustaceans, nitric oxide synthase (NOS) plays a significant role in innate immunity and in the regulation of the nervous system. We describe the full-length cDNA sequence (4,616 bp) of the kuruma shrimp M. japonicus NOS (Mj NOS). The open reading frame of Mj NOS encoded a protein of 1,187 amino acids with an estimated mass of 134 kDa, and had an 82.3% sequence homology with the NOS gene of the land crab Gecarcinus lateralis. In the brain, gill, intestine, thoracic ganglion and testis of the kuruma shrimp Mj NOS, mRNA was constitutively expressed. When Vibrio penaeicida was injected into the kuruma shrimp, Mj NOS was expressed in the brain, gill, heart, lymphoid organ, intestine and thoracic ganglion. In the gill, Mj NOS expression reached its peak at 12 h and decreased to its normal level 24 h after V. penaeicida injection.

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Date 2011/05/17

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