Molecular cloning and expression analysis of profilin in red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkia

Yan Shui, Zeng-Hong Xu, Huai-S

Abstract

In this study, a novel cDNA encoding the profilin protein from red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii, designated as Procambarus clarkii profilin (pc-profilin), was cloned and identified. Its full-length cDNA contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 378 bp encoding a predicted protein of 125 amino acid residues. The pc-profilin protein exhibits a characteristic sequence structure of cd00148 PROF domain consisting actin interaction sites. Sequence alignment analysis showed that pc-profilin exhibits the highest amino acid sequence similarity (47%) to a profilin from Portunus trituberculatus. Real time RT-qPCR showed that pc-profilin mRNA is abundantly expressed in hemocytes and ovary. Moreover, it was found that with the continuous development of the ovary, expression level of pc-profilin was gradually increased from stage II to V, and subsequently decreased in stage VI. Our study suggests a possible important role for pc-profilin in the ovarian development and maturity in P. clarkii.