Molecular characterization and expression analysis of complement component C3 in southern catfish (Silurus meridionalis) and a whole mount in situ hybridization study on its ontogeny

The complement system plays an important role in protecting fish against attack by pathogens early in life. Complement component C3 is a central component in the complement system. The present work aimed to clone the full length C3 cDNA sequence of southern catfish (Silurus meridionalis), detect the tissue expression patterns of C3, investigate the ontogeny of C3 in embryo and larva, and assess the expression of C3 in response to pathogen infection. The full length C3 cDNA sequence of 5157 bp with an open reading frame (ORF) of 4938 bp was cloned from southern catfish. The deduced amino acid sequence showed similarity with other teleost fish. The mRNA expression of C3 was detected in liver, spleen, stomach, intestine, and head kidney with RT-PCR and in situ hybridization. Whole mount in situ hybridization results revealed that C3 was first expressed in the yolk syncytial layer at 34 h post fertilization (hpf), followed by the liver at 36 h post hatching (hph). When challenged with Aeromonas hydrophila, the transcripts of C3 showed a significant up-regulation in liver and spleen at 24 h. The results suggested that complement C3 played a key role in defense against invading pathogens in the early development stages of southern catfish. Therefore, these results provide important information to understand the functions of C3 during fish early development in Siluriformes.