DNA microarray analysis on gene candidates possibly related to tetrodotoxin accumulation in pufferfish.

Pufferfish accumulate tetrodotoxin (TTX) at high levels in liver and ovary through the food chain. However, the mechanisms underlying TTX toxification in pufferfish have been poorly understood. In order to search gene candidates involved in TTX accumulation in the torafugu pufferfish Takifugu rubripes, a custom 4x44k oligonucleotide microarray slide was designed by the Agilent eArray program using oligonucleotide probes of 60 bp in length referring to 42,724 predicted transcripts in the publicly available Fugu genome database. DNA microarray analysis was performed with total RNA samples from the livers of two toxic wild specimens in comparison with those from a nontoxic wild specimen and two nontoxic cultured specimens. The mRNA levels of 1108 transcripts were more than 2-fold higher in the toxic specimens than in the nontoxic specimens. The levels of 613 transcripts were remarkably high, and 16 transcripts encoded by 9 genes were up-regulated more than 10-fold. These genes included those encoding forming structural filaments (keratins) and those related to vitamin D metabolism and immunity. It was also noted that the levels of the transcripts encoding serpin peptidase inhibitor clade C member 1, coagulation factor X precursor, complement C2, C3, C5, C8 precursors, and interleukin-6 receptor were high in the toxic liver samples.

Molecular cloning and sequencing of the banded dogfish (Triakis scyllia) interleukin-8 cDNA.

The dogfish (Triakis scyllia) interleukin-8 (IL-8) cDNA was isolated from mitogen-stimulated peripheral white blood cells (WBCs) utilising the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The cDNA sequence showed that the dogfish IL-8 clones contained an open reading frame encoding 101 amino acids. A short 5' untranslated region (UTR) of 70 nucleotides and a long 3' UTR of 893 nucleotides were also present in this 1.2-kb cDNA. Furthermore, the 3' UTR of the mRNA contained the AUUUA sequence that has been implicated in shortening of the half-life of several cytokines and growth factors. The predicted IL-8 peptide had one potential N-linked glycosylation site (Asn-72-Thr-74) that is not conserved in other vertebrates. It also contained four cysteine residues (Cys-34, 36, 61 and 77), which are characteristic of CXC subfamily cytokines and found in all vertebrates, to date. The dogfish IL-8 lacked an ELR motif as found in the lamprey and trout. Comparison of the deduced amino acids showed that the dogfish IL-8 sequence shared 50.5, 41.2, 37.1 and 40.4-45.5% identity with the chicken, lamprey, trout and mammalian IL-8 sequences, respectively.