Short CommunicationMolecular characterization of a p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase gene from Scylla paramamosain and its expression profiles during pathogenic challenge

•The p38 MAPK from Scylla paramamosain was characterized by RACE-PCR, cloning, and sequencing and the phylogenetic status was verified.•Sp-p38 was widely present in various tissues of crab, with the highest expression in hemocytes and intestines.•The expression levels of Sp-p38 in hemocytes was significantly up-regulated after pathogen infection.

A novel p38 MAPK gene from S. paramamosain was cloned and characterized by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) technology. S. paramamosain p38 (Sp-p38) MAPK gene consists of an open reading frame of 1095 bp encoding a 365-amino-acid protein, which showed close phylogenetic relationship to Litopenaeus vannamei p38 MAPK. The tissue distribution patterns showed that Sp-p38 MAPK was widely expressed in all examined tissues, with the highest expression in hemocytes and intestines. The expression levels of Sp-p38 MAPK in hemocytes was up-regulated post-stimulation, which reached the peak at 6 h and 12 h after bacteria (S. aureus and V. harveyi) and WSSV infection, respectively. In conclusion, our data contributed to define the biological characteristics of Sp-p38 MAPK and further demonstrated the critical role of Sp-p38 MAPK in vivo during the viral and bacterial infection.