Immunological role of C4 CC chemokine-1 from snakehead murrel Channa striatus

•C4 CC chemokine 1 obtained from murrel cDNA library.•CsCC-Chem-1 polypeptide contains a small cytokine domain at 30–88.•Highest gene expression was noticed in spleen and is up-regulated by pathogens.•Proliferation activity showed a significant metabolic activity.•CsCC-Chem-1 induces the migration of spleen leukocytes via chemotaxis. In this study, we have reported a cDNA sequence of C4 CC chemokine identified from snakehead murrel (also known as striped murrel) Channa striatus (named as CsCC-Chem-1) normalized cDNA library constructed by Genome Sequencing FLX™ Technology (GS-FLX™). CsCC-Chem-1 is 641 base pairs (bp) long that contain 438bp open reading frame (ORF). The ORF encodes a polypeptide of 146 amino acids with a molecular mass of 15kDa. The polypeptide contains a small cytokine domain at 30–88. The domain carries the CC motif at Cys33-Cys34. In addition, CsCC-Chem-1 consists of another two cysteine residues at C59 and C73, which, together with C33 and C34, make CsCC-Chem-1 as a C4-CC chemokine. CsCC-Chem-1 also contains a ‘TCCT’ motif at 32–35 as CC signature motif; this new motif may represent new characteristic features, which may lead to some unknown function that needs to be further focused on. Phylogenitically, CsCC-Chem-1 clustered together with CC-Chem-1 from rock bream Oplegnathus fasciatus and European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax. Significantly (P