Discovery of toll-like receptor 13 exists in the teleost fish: Miiuy croaker (Perciformes, Sciaenidae)

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an indispensable role in the immune response for pathogen recognition and triggering not only innate immunity but also adaptive immunity. Here we report the TLR13 homologue, one member of TLRs, in Perciformes (especially Sciaenidae). And we used the miiuy croaker as represented species for further functional experiments. Former study reported the TLR13 only expressed in murine, and we are the first to report the teleost TLR13 (mmiTLR13). MmiTLR13 expressed highly in immune defense related tissues, such as the liver, spleen, and kidney, and Vibrio anguillarum or poly(I:C) infection showed the immune response of mmiTLR13. Further luciferase reporter assays showed the ability for activation of ISRE luciferase reporter, but it failed to active NF-κB. And further gene silence by short hairpin RNA (shRNA) confirmed the results. Immunofluorescence of mmiTLR13 presents the cytoplasmic distribution in Hela cell. In addition, the Toll/interleukin 1 receptor (TIR) domain of mammal TLR5 exhibits high identity with TLR13, which indicated the high homology between TLR5 and TLR13. These findings will lay the fundamental cornerstone for further research of teleost TLR13 and expand the horizon for better understand the teleost TLRs system.