Molecular cloning and characterization of four caspases members in Apostichopus japonicus

• Four novel capases genes were identified in Apostichopus japonicus.
• All these genes were ubiquitously expressed in all examined tissues.
• The expression of Ajcaspase-2 was tightly correlated with that of Ajcaspase-8 in each detected tissues.
• The V. splendidus challenge could all significantly induce their expressions.
• The expression level of two initiator caspases were relative earlier than these of two effector caspases.

The caspase family representing aspartate-specific cysteine proteases have been demonstrated to possess key roles in apoptosis and immune response. We previously demonstrated that LPS challenged Apostichopus japonicus coelomocyte could significantly induced apoptosis in vitro. However, apoptosis related molecules were scarcely investigated in this economic species. In the present work, we cloned and characterized four members caspase family from A. japonicus (designated as Ajcaspase-2, Ajcaspase-3, Ajcaspase-6, and Ajcaspase-8, respectively) by RACE. Multiple sequence alignment and structural analysis revealed that all Ajcaspases contained the conservative CASC domain at C terminal, in which some unique features for each Ajcaspase made them different from each other. These specific domains together with phylogenetic analysis supported that all these four identified proteins belonged to novel members of apoptotic signaling pathway in sea cucumber. Tissue distribution analysis revealed that four Ajcaspase genes were constitutively expressed in all examined tissues. The expression of Ajcaspase-2 was tightly correlated with that of Ajcaspase-8 in each detected tissues. Ajcaspase-3 and Ajcaspase-6 transcripts were both highly expressed in immune tissue of coelomocytes. Furthermore, the Vibrio splendidus challenged sea cucumber coelomocytes could significantly up-regulate the mRNA expressions of four genes. The expression levels of Ajcaspase-2 and Ajcaspase-8 were relative earlier than those of Ajcaspase-6 and Ajcaspase-3, respectively, which could be inferred that Ajcapase-2 might directly modulate Ajcaspase-6, and Ajcaspase-8 initiate the expression of Ajcaspase-3. The induce expressions differed among each Ajcaspase depending upon their roles such as initiator or effector caspase. All our results demonstrated that four Ajcaspases present diversified functions in apoptotic cascade signaling pathway of sea cucumber under immune response.