MOLECULAR CLONING, TISSUE DISTRIBUTION, AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF PORCINE AKIRIN2

Akirin2 is a recently discovered gene that is involved in innate immune response. In this study, the porcine Akirin2 gene was cloned. The full-length coding sequence (CDS) of porcine Akirin2 consists of 612 bp and encodes 203 amino acids with a molecular mass of 22493 kD. The homology tree analysis showed that the pig Akirin2 has closer genetic relationships and distance with the known mammalian Akirin2. Real time quantitative PCR analysis showed that the porcine Akirin2 transcript was most abundant in the lung, followed by the skeletal muscle, heart, liver, fat, thymus, lymph node, small intestine, kidney, and spleen. Overexpression of porcine Akirin2 increased expression of IL-6 in porcine jejunal epithelial cell line IPEC-J2 cells. Our data suggest that porcine Akirin2 could play an important role in intestinal immune regulation.