A Dicer2 from Scylla paramamosain activates JAK/STAT signaling pathway to restrain mud crab reovirus

A Dicer2 gene from Scylla paramamosain, named SpDicer2, was cloned and characterized. The full length of SpDicer2 mRNA contains a 121 bp 5'untranslated region (UTR), an open reading frame (ORF) of 4518 bp and a 3′ UTR of 850 bp. The SpDicer2 protein contains seven characteristic Dicer domains and showed 34%–65% identity and 54%–79% similarity to other Dicer protein domains, respectively. The mRNA of SpDicer2 was high expressed in hemocytes, intestine and gill and low expressed in the eyestalk and muscle. Moreover, expression of SpDicer2 was significantly responsive to challenges by mud crab reovirus (MCRV), Poly(I:C), LPS, Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. SpDicer2 was dispersedly presented in the cytoplasm except for a small amount in the nucleus. SpDicer2 could activate SpSTAT to translocate from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, and significantly increase the transcription activity of the wsv069 promoter, suggesting that SpDicer2 activated the JAK/STAT pathway. Furthermore, silencing of SpDicer2 in vivo increased the mortality of MCRV infected mud crab and the viral load in tissues and down-regulated the expression of multiple components of Toll, IMD and JAK-STAT pathways and almost all the examined immune effector genes. These results suggested that SpDicer2 could play an important role in defense against MCRV via activating the JAK/STAT signaling pathways in mud crab. •The full length of a Dicer2 gene from Scylla paramamosain (SpDicer2) was cloned and characterized.•The expression of SpDicer2 was significantly upregulated by stimulation with mud crab reovirus (MCRV), poly(I:C) and LPS.•SpDicer2 could activate the JAK/STAT pathway in S. paramamosain.•SpDicer2 could play an important role in defense against MCRV in mud crab.