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Research Paper

Proteomics analysis reveals a critical role for the WSSV immediate-early protein IE1 in modulating the host prophenoloxidase system

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Pages 936-948 | Received 15 Feb 2022, Accepted 12 May 2022, Published online: 30 May 2022
 

ABSTRACT

White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is a large, enveloped, double-stranded DNA virus that threatens shrimp aquaculture worldwide. So far, the mechanisms of WSSV-host interactions are ill-defined. Recent studies have revealed that IE1, an immediate-early protein of WSSV, is a multifunctional modulator implicated in virus–host interactions. In this study, the functions of IE1 were further explored by identifying its interacting proteins using GST-pull down and mass spectrometry analysis. A total of 361 host proteins that potentially bind to IE1 were identified. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that the identified IE1-interactors wereinvolved in various signaling pathways such as prophenoloxidase (proPO) system, PI3K-AKT, and MAPK. Among these, the regulatory role of IE1 in shrimp proPO system was further studied. The Co-immunoprecipitation results confirmed that IE1 interacted with the Ig-like domain of Penaeus vannamei proPO or proPO-like protein (hemocyanin). Additionally, we found that knockdown of IE1 reduced viral genes expression and viral loads and increased the hemocytes’ PO activity, whereas recombinant IE1 protein inhibited the PO activity in a dose-dependent manner. Finally, we demonstrated that WSSV could suppress the hemocytes’ PO activity at the early infection stage. Collectively, our current data indicate that IE1 is a novel viral regulator that negatively modulates the shrimp proPO system.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2022.2078471.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Nos. 31702387 and 32173017], China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [No. 2018M630973], Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province [STKJ2021188] and Shantou University Scientific Research Foundation for Talents [No. NTF20008].