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A Teleost Polymeric Ig Receptor Exhibiting Two Ig-Like Domains Transports Tetrameric IgM into the Skin¹

^* Fisheries Laboratory, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan

The skin mucus IgM is an important molecule in the mucosal immune system of teleost skin. However, the transport mechanism associated with this molecule has yet to be clarified. In this study, we isolated a gene encoding a polymeric Ig receptor (pIgR) from a species of teleost fish, Takifugu rubripes (fugu). This gene is known to be an Ig transporter in the intestine of mammals. Our studies further demonstrated that fugu pIgR was expressed in the skin and that a fragment of pIgR bound to tetrameric IgM in the skin mucus. These results indicate that the skin pIgR transports tetrameric IgM into the skin mucus. The fugu pIgR exhibits a unique structure containing only two Ig-like domains corresponding to domain 1 and domain 4/5 of mammalian pIgR. This structure was sufficient for successful binding to tetrameric IgM. Teleost skin thus adopts the same Ig transport system as mammalian intestine via a unique pIgR.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

¹ The sequence presented in this article has been submitted to GenBank under the accession no. AB176853.

² Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Hiroaki Suetake, Fisheries Laboratory, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, 2971-4 Bentenjima, Maisaka, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan. E-mail address: asuetake{at}mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

³ Current address: Molecular Genetics Department, Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, 1201 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101.

⁴ Abbreviations used in this paper: pIgR, polymeric Ig receptor; D, Ig-like domain; pIg, polymeric Ig; SC, secretory component; sIgM, secretory IgM.

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