A DM9-containing protein from oyster Crassostrea gigas (CgDM9CP-2) serves as a multipotent pattern recognition receptor

DM9 is a novel protein domain with unknown function originally discovered in Drosophila melanogaster. Recently, a protein harboring DM9 repeats was identified as mannose-specific lectin (CgCGL1, renamed as CgDM9CP-1) from the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. In the present study, another DM9 containing protein was identified from oyster C. gigas (designated as CgDM9CP-2). The open reading frame of CgDM9CP-2 gene was of 432 bp, encoding a polypeptide of 143 amino acids with two tandem DM9 repeats. The deduced amino acid sequence of CgDM9CP-2 shared 60.8% identity with that of CgDM9CP-1. In the unrooted phylogenetic tree, CgDM9CP-2 was closely clustered with CgDM9CP-1, and then assigned into the branch of invertebrate DM9CPs. The mRNA transcripts of CgDM9CP-2 were expressed in all the tested tissues, including mantle, gonad, gills, adductor muscle, hemocytes, and hepatopancreas, with the highest expression level in gills. CgDM9CP-2 protein was mainly distributed on the cytomembrane of oyster hemocytes. After mannose stimulation, the mRNA expression of CgDM9CP-2 in gills was up-regulated to the peak level (5.90-fold of that in SSW group, p