Ctenopharyngodon idella IRF2 plays an antagonistic role to IRF1 in transcriptional regulation of IFN and ISG genes.

Interferon Regulatory Factors (IRFs) make up a family of transcription factors involved in transcriptional regulation of type I IFN and IFN-stimulated genes (ISG) in cells. In the present study, an IRF2 gene (termed CiIRF2, JX628585) was cloned and characterized from grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella). The full-length cDNA of CiIRF2 is 1809 bp in length, with the largest open reading frame (ORF) of 981 bp encoding a putative protein of 326 amino acids. CiIRF2 contains a conserved DNA-binding domain (DBD) in N-terminal and a non-conserved C-terminal region. Protein sequence analysis revealed that CiIRF2 shares significant homology to the known IRF2 counterparts. Phylogenetic reconstruction confirmed its closer evolutionary relationship with other fish counterparts, especially with zebra fish IRF2. CiIRF2 was ubiquitously expressed at low level in all tested grass carp tissues and significantly up-regulated except in brain following poly I:C 6-12 h post stimulation. In order to understand fish innate immune and resistance to virus diseases, recombinant CiIRF2 with His-tag was over-expressed in BL21 Escherichia coli, and the expressed protein was purified by affinity chromatography with Ni-NTA His-Bind Resin. Promoter sequences of grass carp type I IFN gene (CiIFN) and two ISG genes (CiPKR and CiPKZ) were amplified and cloned. In vitro, gel mobility shift assays were employed to analyze the interaction of CiIRF2 protein with promoters of CiIFN, CiPKR and CiPKZ respectively. The results showed that CiIRF2 bound to these promoters with high affinity by means of its DBD. Afterwards, recombinant plasmids of pGL3-CiIFN, pGL3-CiPKR and pGL3-CiPKZ were constructed and transiently co-transfected with pcDNA3.1-CiIRF2 or pcDNA3.1-CiIRF1 respectively into C. idella kidney (CIK) cells. Dual-luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that CiIRF2 down-regulates the transcription activity of CiIFN, CiPKR and CiPKZ genes in CIK cells. To further understand the function of fish IRF2, expression plasmids (pcDNA3.1-IRF2 and pcDNA3.1-IRF1) were transiently co-transfected with pGL3-IFN or pGL3-CiPKZ into CIK cells, respectively. The results revealed that CiIRF2 plays an antagonistic role to CiIRF1 in transcriptional regulation of IFN and ISG genes.