Cloning of Full Length cDNA and Tissue Expression Analysis of Hepcidin Gene from Cobia (Rachycentron canadum)

The techniques of homology clone and RACE were used to clone the Hepcidin gene from cobia (Rachycentron canadium).The full length cDNA of Hepcidin gene was 714 bp with a 213 bp 5'untranslated region (UTR),a 228 bp 3'UTR and a 273 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a polypeptide of 90 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular weight of 10.03 ku and theoretical isoelectric point of 7.54.The predicted molecular included signal peptide,prodomain peptide and mature peptide.Phylogenetic tree of Hepcidin amino acid sequences was constructed and homology compapison of amino acid sequences showed that homologies were varied from 24.4% to 85.6% with some known Hepcidin amino acids in other fishes and mammals.Quantitative Real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis revealed that Hepcidin gene was expressed in all tissues with different expression levels,which expressed most in liver.The Hepcidin gene expressions in liver,head kidney and spleen were up-regulated after stimulation of LPS and formalin-inactivated Vibrio carchariae.