Rainbow trout suppressor of cytokine signalling (SOCS)-1, 2 and 3: molecular identification, expression and...

Suppressor of cytokine signalling (SOCS) proteins are inhibitors of cytokine signalling pathways. Three SOCS genes, SOCS-1, 2 and 3, have been identified and their sequences analyzed in an economically important fish, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss, Walbaum). In general, these three SOCS molecules are well conserved especially in the SRC homology 2 and the SOCS domains, with sequence identities between trout and mammals ranging from 41 to 42, 50 to 51, and 58 to 61% for SOCS-1, 2 and 3, respectively. The identities within fish species are slightly higher, with sequence identities between trout and the other fish species at 44-46, 64-70, and 71-76% for SOCS-1, 2 and 3, respectively. All the SOCS-1, as well as all the SOCS-2 or 3 molecules from different species are grouped together in phylogenetic tree analysis with high bootstrap support, with the fish molecules in each type grouping closely together. The expression of the trout SOCS-1, 2 and 3 genes are detectable by real-time PCR in all the eight tissues studied; the gills, skin, muscle, liver, spleen, head kidney, intestine and brain. SOCS-1 is highly expressed in intestine, head kidney, spleen, gills and skin. SOCS-2 is highly expressed in brain, head kidney, muscle, spleen, gills, skin and intestine. The expression of SOCS-3 is the highest among the three SOCS genes in all the tissues except in intestine, brain and liver. The modulation of SOCS gene expression is shown to be cytokine and cell type dependent. While interferon-gamma up-regulates the expression of all the three SOCS genes in both the fibroid RTG-2 and the monocyte/macrophage RTS-11 cell lines, interleukin-1beta only up-regulates SOCS gene expression in the RTG-2 cell line, with little, if any, effect in the RTS-11 cell line.