Genome‐wide characterization of caspase genes in Japanese pufferfish, <i>Takifugu rubripes</i> , and expression profiles in response to <i>Vibrio harveyi</i> infection

Abstract Caspases, also known as cysteine‐dependent aspartate‐directed proteases, play an important role in regulating apoptosis during development and inflammation. In this study, 10 caspase genes were characterized by searching the Japanese pufferfish genome using various bioinformatics methods, such multiple sequence alignment phylogenetic analysis. Additionally, we examined expression profiles of every member both healthy tissues infected with Vibrio harveyi liver intestine. Our results revealed that detected all tissues, levels varied among different genes. infection induced significant changes caspases a time‐dependent manner, suggesting they might key roles defense process pufferfish. findings offer strong support for future studies aiming to provide initial assessment teleosts.