Identification and primary immune characteristics of an amphioxus akirin homolog

•One akirin homolog was identified in amphioxus.•Amphioxus akirin transcripts were widely expressed in various tissues.•The up-regulated of amphioxus akirin occurred with 24 h after Gram-negative and -positive bacterial challenges.•Amphioxus akirin were strictly localized to the nucleus of HEK293T cells.

Akirin is a recently described nuclear protein that is thought to be required for the NF-κB signaling pathway in insects and vertebrates. Here, functional investigations of akirin are described in the basal chordate amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense in an attempt to link this gene between insect and vertebrate lineages. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that amphioxus akirin represented a true ortholog of the two characterized vertebrate akirin paralogs. Amphioxus akirin, coding 219 amino acids with two nuclear localization signal (NLS) sequences and one 14-3-3 binding motif, was widely expressed in various tissues and up-regulated in response to Escherichia coli (Gram-negative bacterium) and Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive bacterium) challenges. Furthermore, amphioxus akirin was strictly localized to the nucleus of HEK293T cells in a confocal analysis. Our work identified and characterized for the first time an amphioxus akirin homolog and will promote a better understanding of the evolution and transcriptional network of the akirin gene family.