Authors: Arvind Y M Sundaram Sonia Consuegra Viswanath Kiron Jorge M O Fernandes
Publish Date: 2012/06/24
Volume: 39, Issue: 9, Pages: 8965-8975
Abstract
Tolllike receptors TLRs play a crucial role in host defence since they trigger immune response following recognition of pathogenassociated molecular patterns PAMPs in potential infectious agents TLRs have been found in numerous organisms including mammals birds and teleosts Some TLR members are commonly retained across all species whilst others were lost gained or diverged independently during evolution Our knowledge about the evolution and specific functions of tlr21 tlr22 and tlr23 in teleosts are still scarce Phylogenetic analysis of 18 tlr13 tlr21 tlr22 and tlr23 genes from 9 different fish species divided them in two groups All tlr21 genes were under the first clade while the second comprised tlr22 tlr23 and tlr13 from Atlantic salmon Evidence of positive selection was detected at three sites within the leucinerich repeat regions of Tlr22 which may influence PAMP recognition Immunostimulation experiments revealed that expression of zebrafish tlr22 is modulated by several unrelated PAMPs Up to a 3fold increase in tlr21 and tlr22 expression was detected in larvae exposed to immunostimulants such as lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan or poly IC We found that zebrafish tlrs are expressed mainly in immunerelated organs such as spleen and kidney as well as in testis and temperature stress did not have an effect on the expression of tlr21 and tlr22 in the early stages of development in zebrafish larvae Our data indicates that these teleost tlrs may play a role in innate host defence In particular tlr22 is evolving under positive selection which indicates functional diversification and adaptation of the response to different PAMPs
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