The novel white spot syndrome virus-induced gene, PmERP15, encodes an ER stress-responsive protein in black tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon

•A novel, WSSV-strongly induced gene, PmERP15, was identified in Penaeus monodon.•The strong induction of PmERP15 by WSSV was observed in all examined tissues.•PmERP15 was localized to the ER in both shrimp hemocytes and Sf9 insect cells.•PmERP15 expression was found to be induced by ER stress inducers tunicamycin and DTT.•WSSV caused PmERP15-silenced shrimp die sooner but WSSV copies were unchanged.

By microarray screening, we identified a white spot syndrome virus (WSSV)-strongly induced novel gene in gills of Penaeus monodon. The gene, PmERP15, encodes a putative transmembrane protein of 15 kDa, which only showed some degree of similarity (54–59%) to several unknown insect proteins, but had no hits to shrimp proteins. RT-PCR showed that PmERP15 was highly expressed in the hemocytes, heart and lymphoid organs, and that WSSV-induced strong expression of PmERP15 was evident in all tissues examined. Western blot analysis likewise showed that WSSV strongly up-regulated PmERP15 protein levels. In WSSV-infected hemocytes, immunofluorescence staining showed that PmERP15 protein was colocalized with an ER enzyme, protein disulfide isomerase, and in Sf9 insect cells, PmERP15-EGFP fusion protein colocalized with ER -Tracker™ Red dye as well. GRP78, an ER stress marker, was found to be up-regulated in WSSV-infected P. monodon, and both PmERP15 and GRP78 were up-regulated in shrimp injected with ER stress inducers tunicamycin and dithiothreitol. Silencing experiments showed that although PmERP15 dsRNA-injected shrimp succumbed to WSSV infection more rapidly, the WSSV copy number had no significant changes. These results suggest that PmERP15 is an ER stress-induced, ER resident protein, and its induction in WSSV-infected shrimp is caused by the ER stress triggered by WSSV infection. Furthermore, although PmERP15 has no role in WSSV multiplication, its presence is essential for the survival of WSSV-infected shrimp.