RESUMO
Apoptosis is an essential mechanism in multicellular organisms which results in the induction of cell death. Important apoptotic proteins, including high temperature requirement A2 (PmHtrA2; also known as serine protease), inhibitor of apoptosis protein (PmIAP) and Pm caspase, have been previously identified in black tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon. However, the relevance among these proteins in apoptosis regulation has not been established yet in shrimp. Here, we showed that PmHtrA2 was able to interact with PmIAP and the binding of the two proteins was mediated by the BIR2 domain of PmIAP. In addition, the BIR2 of PmIAP was shown to be able to inhibit Pm caspase activity. The inhibitory effect of the BIR2 domain on Pm caspase was impaired under the presence of the IBM peptide of PmHtrA2, implying a role for PmHtrA2 in apoptosis activation. Our combined results suggested that P. monodon possesses a conserved mechanism by which the caspase-3 activity is modulated by HtrA2 and IAP, as previously seen in insects and mammals.