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¹ Nanjing Normal University, College of Life Sciences, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Aquatic Crustacean Diseases, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu, China
² Jiangsu Second Normal University, College of Life Science, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu, China
³ Co-Innovation Center for Marine Bio-Industry Technology of Jiangsu Province, Lian Yungang 222005, China DOI : 10.4194/1303-2712-v18_12_09 Viewed : 4274 - Downloaded : 3303 A Caspase-14 gene homolog (designated as PsCaspase-14) in a reptile, the Chinese soft-shelled turtle Pelodiscus sinensis (Wiegmann, 1835), has been cloned and identified. The full-length cDNA of turtle PsCaspase-14 was consisted of 1,464 nucleotides with a 5`-terminal untranslated region (UTR) of 45 base pairs (bp), a 3`-terminal UTR of 198 bp with a canonical polyadenylation signal sequence AATAAA, and an open-reading frames of 1,068 bp, which encoding 406 amino acids (Theoretical pI/Mw: 6.77/46.24kDa) and containing PAAD-DAPIN domain (52-133) and CASc domain (170-406). Sequence alignment, phylogenetic analyses, and structure comparison revealed that PsCaspase-14 is a member of the Caspase family. The Chinese soft-shelled turtles were infected with Aeromonas hydrophila and Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and their innate immune responses were investigated from PsCaspase-14 mRNA expression levels in various tissues by using real-time PCR method. RT-qPCR analyses showed that turtles PsCaspase-14 mRNA was ubiquitously expressed in brain, liver, heart, lung, stomach, spleen, muscle, pancreas, gallbladder, kidney, and intestine tissues of control turtles, and RT-qPCR analyses further indicated that PsCaspase-14 mRNA was affected significantly in tissues of the turtles challenged by bacteria A. hydrophila and V. parahaemolyticus, suggesting that PsCaspase-14 might be involved in turtle antiviral immunity. Keywords : Pelodiscus sinensis, PsCaspase-14, cDNA cloning, mRNA expression, Immune challenge