Characterisation of arginase paralogues in salmonids and their modulation by immune stimulation/ infection

In this study we show that four arginase isoforms (arg1a, arg1b, arg2a, arg2b) exist in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). We have characterised these molecules in terms of a) sequence analysis, b) constitutive expression in different tissues, and modulated expression following c) stimulation of head kidney macrophages in vitro, or d) vaccination/infection with Yersinia ruckeri and e) parasite infection (AGD caused by Paramoeba perurans and PKD caused by Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae). Synteny analysis suggested that these arginase genes are paralogues likely from the Ss4R duplication event, and amino acid identity/similarity analyses showed that the proteins are relatively well conserved across species. In rainbow trout constitutive expression of one or both paralogues was seen in most tissues but different constitutive expression patterns were observed for the different isoforms. Stimulation of rainbow trout head kidney macrophages with PAMPs and cytokines also revealed isoform specific responses and kinetics, with arg1a being particularly highly modulated by the PAMPs and pro-inflammatory cytokines. In contrast the type II arginase paralogues were induced by rIl-4/13, albeit to a lesser degree. Vaccination and infection with Y. ruckeri also revealed isoform specific responses, with variation in tissue expression level and kinetics. Lastly, the impact of parasite infection was studied, where down regulation of arg1a and arg1b was seen in two different models (AGD in salmon and PKD in trout) and of arg2a in AGD. The differential responses seen are discussed in the context of markers of type II responses in fish and paralogue subfunctionalization.