Molecular identification, polymorphism, and expression analysis of major histocompatibility complex class IIA and B genes of turbot (Scophthalmus maximus).

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II has a central role in the adaptive immune system by presenting foreign peptides to the T-cell receptor. The full lengths of MHC class II A and B cDNA were cloned from turbot by homology cloning and rapid amplification of cDNA ends polymerase chain reaction (RACE PCR), and genomic organization, molecular polymorphism, and expression of turbot class IIB gene were examined to study the function of class IIB gene in fish. The deduced amino acid sequence of turbot class II A (GenBank accession no.DQ001730) and turbot class IIB (GenBank accession no. DQ094170) had 69.8%, 67.6%, 65.5%, 59.2%, 54.5%, 52.8%, 46.2%, 46.6%, 28.3%, 28.5%, 22.2% identity and 71.5%, 70.7%, 67.1%, 68.4%, 46.7%, 53.5%, 46.7%, 50.0%, 25.2%, 29.2%, 27.6% identity with those of Japanese flounder, striped sea bass, red sea bream, cichlid, rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon, carp, zebrafish, nurse shark, mouse and human, respectively. Eleven class IIB alleles were identified from three turbot individuals. The amino acid sequence of turbot class IIB designated as Scma-DAB*0101 had 86.9%, 88.6%, 88.6%, 89.4%, 87.8%, 86.9%, 84.1%, 86.5%, 87.3%, 77.1%, and 86.9% identity with those of turbot class IIB 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (Scma-DAB*0201- Scma-DAB*1201), respectively. Six different class IIB alleles observed in a single individual may infer the existence of three loci at least. Semiquantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) demonstrated that turbot class IIA and B were ubiquitously expressed in normal tissues. Challenge of turbot with pathogenic bacteria, Vibrio anguillarum, resulted in a significant decrease in the expression of MHC class IIB mRNA from 24 h to 48 h after infection in liver and head kidney, and a significant decrease from 24 h to 72 h after infection in spleen, followed by an increase after 96 h, respectively.