The involvement of VEGF and VEGFR in bacterial recognition and regulation of antimicrobial peptides in Eriocheir sinensis

Bin Zhou; Yi Zhang; Mengqi Ni; Yunhui Bai; Qiao Shi; Jinbin Zheng; Zhaoxia Cui

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.132242

The involvement of VEGF and VEGFR in bacterial recognition and regulation of antimicrobial peptides in Eriocheir sinensis

Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 May 9;270(Pt 1):132242. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.132242. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Bin Zhou¹, Yi Zhang¹, Mengqi Ni¹, Yunhui Bai¹, Qiao Shi¹, Jinbin Zheng¹, Zhaoxia Cui²

Affiliations

¹ School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315020, China.
² School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315020, China; Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Pilot Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao 266071, China. Electronic address: cuizhaoxia@nbu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38729487
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.132242

Abstract

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF reporter (VEGFR) are essential molecules in VEGF signalling pathway. Although the functions of VEGF and VEGFR have been well reported in vertebrates, their functions are still poorly understood in invertebrates. In this study, the open reading frame sequences of EsVEGF1 and EsVEGFR4 were cloned from Eriocheir sinensis, and their corresponding proteins shared typical structure characteristics with their counterparts in other species. EsVEGF1 were predominantly expressed in hepatopancreas and muscle while EsVEGFR4 mainly expressed in hemocytes and intestine. The expression levels of EsVEGF1 in hemocytes were rapidly induced by Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and it also increased rapidly in hepatopancreas after being challenged with V. parahaemolyticus. The expression levels of EsVEGFR4 only increased in hepatopancreas of crabs injected with S. aureus. The extracellular immunoglobulin domain of EsVEGFR4 could bind with Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria as well as lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycan. EsVEGF1 could act as the ligand for EsVEGFR4 and Toll-like receptor and regulate the expression of crustins and lysozyme with a tissue-specific manner, while have no regulatory function on that of anti-lipopolysaccharide factors. This study will provide new insights into the immune defense mechanisms mediated by VEGF and VEGFR in crustaceans.

Keywords: Antimicrobial peptides; Eriocheir sinensis; Pattern recognition receptor; Vascular endothelial growth factor; Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor.