Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) CC chemokines: Diversity and expression analysis

Chemokines are a large, diverse group of small cytokines that can be classified into several families, including the CC chemokines that are characterized by two adjacent cysteines near their amino terminus. CC chemokines play a pivotal role in host defense mechanisms by inducing leukocyte chemotaxis under physiological and inflammatory conditions. Analysis of CC chemokines from teleost fishes indicates that the number of CC chemokine genes and their tissue expression patterns vary largely in this group of vertebrates. Here we describe 32 distinct CC chemokine sequences from Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) identified by analysis of approximately 206,000 ESTs. Phylogenetic analysis of Atlantic cod CC chemokines placed these sequences in seven clusters, most likely resulting from species-specific gene duplications, and two unique sequences; 12 of these CC chemokines, including at least one member of each cluster, were analyzed by QPCR using four immune-related tissues (head kidney, liver, spleen and blood) obtained from unstimulated, polyriboinosinic polyribocytidylic acid (pIC)-stimulated and formalin-killed atypical Aeromonas salmonicida-stimulated individuals. EST abundance and QPCR analysis indicate that the expression of closely related CC chemokines GmSCYA101 and GmSCYA102, GmSCYA108 and GmSCYA109 or GmSCYA122 and GmSCYA124 can be highly tissue-specific despite substantial sequence identity. Stimulation with the viral mimic pIC or formalin-killed atypical A. salmonicida resulted in increased expression of most of the CC chemokines, indicating that they can be regarded as either inducible (inflammatory) or dual-function rather than constitutive (homeostatic). Tissue specificity, and the level of induction, varied broadly; for example, GmSCYA123 was at least 4-fold up-regulated by both inducers in all tissues analyzed, whereas pIC increased the expression of GmSCYA124 in liver over 1500 times.