CHARACTERIZATION OF A TRANSLATIONALLY CONTROLLED TUMOR PROTEIN (TCTP) GENE FROM Macrobrachium rosenbergii AND TRANSCRIPTOMIC ANALYSIS OF M. rosenbergii POST-LARVAE IN RESPONSE TO M. rosenbergii NODAVIRUS (MrNV)

Abstract

The translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) is involved in many biological processes including anti-apoptosis, which is connected to anti-viral mechanisms. This study reported full-length cDNA of M. rosenbergii TCTP (MrTCTP) which consisted of a 783 bp encoding a 18.94 kDa polypeptide. MrTCTP demonstrated all major characteristics of TCTP. The expression analysis showed that MrTCTP was expressed in every tissue sample examined, preferentially in the hepatopancreas and muscle. The up-regulations of MrTCTP in muscle from one to four days after the infection with MrNV were reported. Additionally, MrTCTP-knockdown prawn using RNAi exhibited higher mortality rates after being challenged with MrNV. The transcriptomic data on how M. rosenbergii post-larvae response to infection with MrNV is not yet available. Therefore, this study reported highly complete transcriptome for M. rosenbergii post-larvae, as well as list of candidate genes involved in the infection. The assembled transcriptome consisted of 96,362 unigenes. The assembled transcriptome demonstrated high completeness and was annotated against various public databases. EdgeR software showed 2,413 up-regulated and 3,125 down-regulated genes during the infection of MrNV. These differentially expressed genes that involved in antiviral immunity were categorized into thirteen functional groups. More significantly, the expression of nine genes from nine functional groups in separate biological samples was validated by qRT-PCR.-