Cloning and expression analysis of nonspecific cytotoxic cell receptor 1 (Ls-NCCRP1) from red snapper (Lutjanus sanguineus)

It is well known that nonspecific cytotoxic cells (NCCs) are kinds of natural killer cell mediated innate immune responses in teleosts. The nonspecific cytotoxic cell receptor protein 1 (NCCRP-1) is an important cell surface protein on NCC, which serves crucial functions in target cell recognition and cytotoxicity activation. In the present study, a nonspecific cytotoxic cell receptor protein NCCRP-1 (Ls-NCCRP1) was cloned from red snapper, Lutjanus sanguineus. The Ls-NCCRP1 cDNA is composed of 986 bp with a 43 bp of 5′-UTR, 702 bp open reading frame (ORF) and 241 bp 3′-UTR, encoding a polypeptide of 233 amino acids (GenBank accession no: ADK32635). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Ls-NCCRP1 showed highest similarity to sea bream NCCRP-1. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that Ls-NCCRP1 had relatively high expression level in the head kidney, spleen and liver. After Vibrio alginolyticus infection, transcripts of Ls-NCCRP1 increased and reached its peak at 4 h p.i. These results indicated that Ls-NCCRP1 may play an important role in innate immune response to bacteria.