Invertebrate astakines - regulators of differentiation in hematopoietic tissues

• Hematopoiesis is the process by which hemocytes mature and subsequently enter the circulation. Vertebrate prokineticins are known to take part in this process, as are the invertebrate prokineticin domain proteins, astakines. In Pacifastacus leniusculus astakine 1 is essential for the release of new hemocytes into the open circulatory system of these animals. In addition to astakine 1 we have now cloned a homologue of astakine 1 with an insert of 13 amino acids, named astakine 2. Common to both crustacean astakines is the lack of the N-terminal AVIT amino acids present in vertebrate PKs, and hence receptor binding differs from that of vertebrate PKs. Now we have found astakine-like sequences in 19 different invertebrate species and the sequences show that some motifs are conserved among invertebrate groups. Previously we showed that astakine 1 is directly involved in hematopoiesis and now we show that astakine 1 and astakine 2 have different roles in hemocyte lineage differentiation and that astakine 1 specifically induce differentiation along the semigranular cell lineage. Further we discuss the impact of the putative structure of different astakines in comparison with the vertebrate prokineticins.            

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Immunologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Immunology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

astatakine

hematopoiesis

prokineticin

cytokine

invertebrate

innate immunity

Immunology

Immunologi

Biology with specialization in Comparative Physiology

Biologi med inriktning mot jämförande fysiologi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)