Amphioxus SARM Involved in Neural Development May Function as a Suppressor of TLR Signaling

Among five Toll/IL-1R resistance adaptors, sterile a and Toll/IL-1R resistance motif containing protein (SARM) is the only one conserved from Caenorhabditis elegans to human. However, its physiologic roles are hardly understood, and its involvement in TLR signaling remains debatable. In this study, we first demonstrated a predominant expression of amphioxus SARM (Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense SARM) in neural cells during embryogenesis and its predominant expression in the digestive system from larva to adult, suggesting its primitive role in neural development and a potential physiologic role in immunity. We further found that B. belcheri tsingtauense SARM was localized in mitochondria and could attenuate the TLR signaling via interacting with amphioxus MyD88 and tumor necrosis receptor associated factor 6. Thus, amphioxus SARM appears unique in that it may play dual functions in neural development and innate immunity by targeting amphioxus TLR signaling. The Journal of Immunology, 2010, 184: 6874-6881.