The First Cytokine Sequence Within Cartilaginous Fish: IL-1β in the Small Spotted Catshark ( Scyliorhinus canicula )

Abstract

Cartilaginous fish are considered the most primitive living jawed vertebrates with a complex immune system typical of all jawed vertebrates. Cytokine homologs are found within jawless and bony fish, although no cytokine or cytokine receptor genes have been sequenced in cartilaginous fish. In this study the complete coding sequence of the small spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) IL-1β gene is presented that contains a short 5′ untranslated region (54 bp), a 903-bp open reading frame, a 379-bp 3′ untranslated region, a polyadenylation signal, and eight mRNA instability motifs. The predicted translation (301 amino acids) has highest identity to trout IL-1β (31.7%), with greatest homology within the putative 12 β-sheets. The IL-1 family signature is also present, but there is no apparent signal peptide. As with other nonmammalian IL-1β sequences, the IL-1-converting enzyme cut site is absent. Expression of the IL-1β transcript is detectable by RT-PCR in the spleen and testes, induced in vivo with LPS. Furthermore, a 7-fold increase of transcript levels in splenocytes incubated for 5 h with LPS was seen. The genomic organization comprises six exons and five introns with highest homology seen in exons encoding the largest amount of secondary structure per amino acid. Southern blot analysis suggests at least two copies of the IL-1β gene or genes related to the 3′ end of the IL-1β sequence are present in the catshark. The cloning of IL-1β in S. canicula, the first cytokine sequenced within cartilaginous fish, verifies previous bioactivity evidence for the presence of inflammatory cytokines.