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Highly Variable Immune-Response Proteins (185/333) from the Sea Urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus: Proteomic Analysis Identifies Diversity within and between Individuals¹

Nolwenn M. Dheilly^*, Sham V. Nair^2,*, L. Courtney Smith and David A. Raftos^*

^* Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia; and Department of Biological Sciences, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052

185/333 genes and transcripts from the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, predict high levels of amino acid diversity within the encoded proteins. Based on their expression patterns, 185/333 proteins appear to be involved in immune responses. In the present study, one- and two-dimensional Western blots show that 185/333 proteins exhibit high levels of molecular diversity within and between individual sea urchins. The molecular masses of 185/333-positive bands or spots range from 30 to 250 kDa with a broad array of isoelectric points. The observed molecular masses are higher than those predicted from mRNAs, suggesting that 185/333 proteins form strong associations with other molecules or with each other. Some sea urchins expressed >200 distinct 185/333 proteins, and each animal had a unique suite of the proteins that differed from all other individuals. When sea urchins were challenged in vivo with pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs; bacterial LPS and peptidoglycan), the expression of 185/333 proteins increased. More importantly, different suites of 185/333 proteins were expressed in response to different PAMPs. This suggests that the expression of 185/333 proteins can be tailored toward different PAMPs in a form of pathogen-specific immune response.

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 This study was funded in part by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant to D.A.R. (DP0880316) and by a United States National Science Foundation grant to L.C.S. (MCB 04-24235). N.D. is the recipient of an International Macquarie University Research Scholarship postgraduate scholarship.

² Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Sham V. Nair Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia. E-mail address: snair{at}bio.mq.edu.au

³ Abbreviations used in this paper: PAMP, pathogen-associated molecular pattern; aCF, artificial coelomic fluid; CF, coelomic fluid; EST, expressed sequence tag; IPG, immobilized pH gradient; LC, liquid chromatography; MS, mass spectrometry; 1DE, one-dimensional electrophoresis; pI, isoelectric point; SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism; 2DE, two-dimensional electrophoresis.