Scientia Agricultura Sinica ›› 2016, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (6): 1207-1218.doi: 10.3864/j.issn.0578-1752.2016.06.016

• ANIMAL SCIENCE·VETERINARY SCIENCERE·SOURCE INSECT • Previous Articles    

Characterization and Expression Analysis of Serine Protease BmSP141 from the Silkworm (Bombyx mori ) in Response to Starvation

LIU Hua-wei1, LI You-shan2, TANG Xin1, ZHANG Xiao-lu1, ZHAO Ping1   

  1. 1State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716
    2Vitamin D Research Institute, Shaanxi University of Technology, Hanzhong 723001, Shaanxi
  • Received:2015-10-30 Online:2016-03-16 Published:2016-03-16

Abstract: 【Objective】The objective of this study is toanalyze the sequence of BmSP141, clear its spatial and temporal expression patterns, and explore its potential function by starvation and re-feeding in silkworm (Bombyx mori). 【Method】The nucleotide sequence of serine protease gene BmSP141 coding region was obtained by TA cloning. Biology online software was used to analyze the amino acid sequence, molecular weight, functional domain and other information of the coding region of this gene. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree analysis of BmSP141 with serine proteases from other species were done by ClustalX1.8 and MEGA5.02 software. Prokaryotic expression vector p28-BmSP141 was constructed and introduced into Rosetta (DE3) to express the target protein, which was purified by nickel affinity chromatography. The expression profile of BmSP141 at mRNA and protein levels in different tissues and development stages were analyzed by semi-quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR), quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and Western blot. Immunofluorescence localization was used to detect the location of BmSP141 protein in the 4th instar larvae. The impacts of starvation and re-feeding on the expression of BmSP141 mRNA and protein were detected by qPCR and Western blot. 【Result】The BmSP141 encoded a 292 amino acid protein with a 17-residues signal peptide. The predicted molecular mass and isoelectric point of BmSP141 mature protein are 25.9 kD and 7.8, respectively. Multi-sequence alignment showed that BmSP141 share a highly sequence identity (62% and 63%) with the serine proteases of Heliothis virescens and Mamestra configurata,respectively. These homologs have conserved catalytic triad and similar serine protease catalytic motifs, but the substrate specificity pocket sites of BmSP141 are relatively different compared with the conversed pocket sites of chymotrypsin. Furthermore, the recombinant protein BmSP141 was expressed as inclusion body at 37, and purified by nickel affinity chromatography. Then, the purified protein was used to generate the BmSP141-specific polyclonal antibodies. RT-PCR analysis of BmSP141 revealed that BmSP141 mRNA was mainly expressed in the larval midgut and highly expressed at the larval feeding stage. Whereas its expression level was lower in the pupae and moth than in the larvae. Western blot analysis showed that BmSP141 protein was only expressed in the midgut and the expression level was increased first and then decreased from 5th instar to wandering stage. Immunohistochemical analysis further confirmed that BmSP141 protein was predominately present in the cytoplasm of midgut epithelium cell. The expression of BmSP141 mRNA and protein was down-regulated after starvation but up-regulated by re-feeding. As a result, the expression of BmSP141 was induced by the food in the midgut.【Conclusion】BmSP141 was highly expressed in the midgut of larval feeding stage and lower expressed in the pupae and moth stages than in the larvae stage. The expression of BmSP141 mRNA and protein was down-regulated after starvation but up-regulated by re-feeding, which suggested that this gene might be involved in food protein digestion in the midgut during larval development.

Key words: Bombyx mori, serine protease, midgut, starvation, expression analysis

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