The first molluscan acute phase serum amyloid A (A-SAA) identified from oyster Crassostrea hongkongensis: Molecular cloning and functional characterization

•The first mollusk ChSAA gene was cloned from the Crassostrea hongkongensis.•The ChSAA displays structural characteristics typical of SAA family proteins.•The mRNA transcript of ChSAA was acutely up-regulated after microbial infection.•ChSAA acts as an inducer of the NF-κB signaling pathway in HEK293T cells.•ChSAA is a major acute-phase protein involved in anti-pathogen responses of oysters.

Serum amyloid A (SAA), a major evolutionarily conserved acute-phase protein, participates in many biological processes in eukaryotic cells, including innate immunity. However, little information regarding the relationship between SAA and innate immunity in mollusks is currently available. In this report, the first bivalve SAA (referred to as ChSAA) gene was identified and characterized from the Hong Kong oyster Crassostrea hongkongensis. Its full-length cDNA is 623 bp, including a 5′-UTR of 147 bp, a 3′-UTR of 56 bp containing a poly(A) tail and an open reading frame (ORF) of 420 bp that encodes a polypeptide of 139 amino acids. The predicted amino acid sequence of ChSAA comprises characteristic motifs of the SAA family, including a typical signal peptide and a conserved SAA domain. Comparison and phylogenetic analyses suggested that ChSAA shares a high identity to known acute-phase SAA proteins (A-SAAs). In addition, quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that ChSAA is constitutively expressed in all tissues examined, with the highest expression level in the mantle, and that its expression was acutely and significantly up-regulated in hemocytes following challenge by Vibrio alginolyticus (G−), Staphylococcus haemolyticus (G+) or Saccharomyces cerevisiae (fungus). Furthermore, over-expression of ChSAA via transfection with a ChSAA expression vector led to significantly increased NF-κB activity in HEK293T cells. These results suggest that ChSAA is likely to constitute a member of the A-SAA family involved in anti-pathogen responses in C. hongkongensis.