Involvement of fish signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in SGIV replication and virus induced paraptosis

• The transcript of Ec-STAT3 in spleen was increased significantly after injection with SGIV.
• SGIV infection altered the distribution of phosphorylated STAT3 in nucleus.
• Inhibition of Ec-STAT3 activation decreased the SGIV replication significantly.
• Inhibition of STAT3 obviously altered SGIV induced cell cycle arrest.
• Inhibition of STAT3 down-regulated the expression of pro-survival genes.

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is an important transcription factor which plays crucial roles in immune regulation, inflammation, cell proliferation, transformation, and other physiological processes of the organism. In this study, a novel STAT3 gene from orange spotted grouper (Ec-STAT3) was cloned and characterized. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that full-length of Ec-STAT3 was 3105-bp long and contained a 280-bp 5′UTR, a 470-bp 3′UTR, and a 2355-bp open reading frame (ORF) that encoded a 784-amino acid peptide. The deduced protein of Ec-STAT3 showed 98% identity to that of turbot (Scophthalmus maximus). Amino acid alignment showed that Ec-STAT3 contained four conserved domains, including a protein interaction domain, a coiled coil domain, a DNA binding domain, and an SH2 domain. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that the highest expression level was detected in the liver, followed by skin and spleen. After injection with Singapore grouper iridovirus (SGIV), the transcript of Ec-STAT3 in spleen was increased significantly. To further explore the function of Ec-STAT3, we investigated the roles of Ec-STAT3 in SGIV infection in vitro. Immune fluorescence analysis indicated that SGIV infection altered the distribution of phosphorylated Ec-STAT3 in nucleus, and a small part of phosphorylated Ec-STAT3 was associated with virus assembly sites, suggesting that Ec-STAT3 might be important for SGIV infection. Using STAT3 specific inhibitor, S3I-201, we found that inhibition of Ec-STAT3 activation decreased the SGIV replication significantly. Moreover, inhibition of Ec-STAT3 activation obviously altered SGIV infection induced cell cycle arrest and the expression of pro-survival genes, including Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and Bax inhibitor. Together, our results firstly demonstrated the critical roles of fish STAT3 in DNA virus replication and virus induced paraptosis, but also provided new insights into the mechanism of iridovirus pathogenesis.