Differential expression of skin mucus C-type lectin in two freshwater eel species, Anguilla marmorata and Anguilla japonica

Two types of lactose-specific lectins, galectin (AJL-1) and C-type lectin (AJL-2), were previously identified in the mucus of adult Anguilla japonica. Here, we compared the expression profiles of these two homologous lectins at the adult and juvenile stages between the tropical eel Anguilla marmorata and the temperate eel A. japonica. Only one lectin, predicted to be an orthologue of AJL-1 by LC-MS/MS, was detected in the mucus of adult A. marmorata. We also found that an orthologous gene to AJL-2 was expressed at very low levels, or not at all, in the skin of adult A. marmorata. However, we detected the gene expression of an AJL-2-orthologue in the skin of juvenile A. marmorata, and a specific antibody also detected the lectin in the juvenile fish epidermis. These findings suggest that expression profiles of mucosal lectins vary during development as well as between species in the Anguilla genus.