Molecular cloning, characterization and expression modulation of four ferritins in black carp Mylopharyngodon piceus in response to Aeromonas hydrophila challenge

Abstract As ubiquitous and conserved proteins, ferritin (FT) plays important roles in immune system and iron storage system. Four cDNAs encoding ferritin (MpFT) were cloned from black carp Mylopharyngodon piceus using homology cloning and rapid amplification of cDNA ends techniques. There were 177, 177, 176 and 173 amino acids in the MpFT-H1α, MpFT-H1β, MpFT-M and MpFT-L, respectively. BLAST analysis reveals that MpFTs shares high identities with other known FTs from zebrafish, Rainbow trout and Human, etc. A typical iron-responsive element (IRE) was predicted in the 5’-untranslated region (UTR) of MpFT-H1α and MpFT-M, respectively. The relative expression levels of MpFT1a were higher in the blood, liver and heart of black carp according to RT-PCR assays (P