Identification and expression analysis on bactericidal permeability-increasing protein (BPI)/lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) of ark shell, Scapharca broughtonii.

Bactericidal permeability-increasing protein (BPI) and lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) are the numbers of the lipid transfer protein/lipopolysaccharide-binding protein family and play crucial roles in the innate immune response to Gram-negative bacteria. A novel Sb-BPI/LBP1 from ark shell Scapharca broughtonii was isolated by expressed sequence tag (EST) and RACE techniques. The Sb-BPI/LBP1 cDNA encoded a polypeptide of 484 amino acids with a putative signal peptide of 21 amino acid residues and a mature protein of 463 amino acids.