An upstream initiator caspase 10 of snakehead murrel Channa striatus, containing DED, p20 and p10 subunits: molecular cloning, gene expression and proteolytic activity.

Caspase 10 (CsCasp10) was identified from a constructed cDNA library of freshwater murrel (otherwise called snakehead) Channa striatus. The CsCasp10 is 1838 base pairs (bp) in length and it is encoding 549 amino acid (aa) residues. CsCasp10 amino acid contains two death effector domains (DED) in the N-terminal at 2-77 and 87-154 and it contains caspase family p20 domain (large subunit) and caspase family p10 domain (small subunit) in the C-terminal at 299-425 and 449-536 respectively. Pairwise analysis of CsCasp10 showed the highest sequence similarity (79%) with caspase 10 of Paralichthys olivaceus. Moreover, the phylogenetic analysis showed that CsCasp10 is clustered together with other fish caspase 10, formed a sister group with caspase 10 from other lower vertebrates including amphibian, reptile and birds and finally clustered together with higher vertebrates such as mammals. Significantly (P < 0.05) highest CsCasp10 gene expression was noticed in gills and lowest in intestine. Furthermore, the CsCasp10 gene expression in C. striatus was up-regulated in gills by fungus Aphanomyces invadans and bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila induction. The proteolytic activity was analyzed using the purified recombinant CsCasp10 protein. The results showed the proteolytic activity of CsCasp10 for caspase 10 substrate was 2.5 units per μg protein. Moreover, the proteolytic activities of CsCasp10 in kidney and spleen induced by A. invadans and A. hydrophila stimulation were analyzed by caspase 10 activity assay kit. All these results showed that CsCasp10 are participated in immunity of C. striatus against A. invadans and A. hydrophila infection.