Cloning and comparative analysis the proximal promoter activities of arginase and agmatinase genes in Apostichopus japonicus

• Promotor sequences of arginase and agmatinase genes were identified firstly in Apostichopus japonicus.
• Ajargianse and Ajagmatinase promoter activities were induced by LPS exposure and l-arginine treatment.
• The region −673/+25 and −648/+32 both contributed importantly to expression of the Ajargianse and Ajagmatinase, respectively.
• NF-κB/Rel and STAT5 could significantly inhibited Ajargianse promoter activity, but not Ajagmatinase.

Our previous work demonstrated that Apostichopus japonicus arginase and agmatinase from l-arginine metabolism synergistically compete with NOS under pathogens challenge. Here we conducted a study to further investigate the mechanism in the regulation of arginase and agmatinase genes in l-arginine metabolism using EPC cell system. Luciferase analysis and progressive 5' deletion analysis suggested that Ajagmatinase promoter was a very robust promoter for its transcription, and the core region of Ajarginase promoter was located within −277 bp to −157 bp. Besides, their promoter activities were significantly activated by LPS and l-arginine challenge both in a time- and dose-dependent manners in EPC cells. When different truncated reporter vector and expression vector co-transfection experiment revealed transcription factor NF-κB/Rel and STAT5 could significantly inhibited Ajarginase promoter activity, but not Ajagmatinase. Our findings were provided novel insights into the transcriptional regulation of Ajarginase and Ajagmatinase, and selectively change their expressions might prevent pathogens infection.