Myostatin is a negative regulator of myogenesis and has been suggested to be an important factor in the development of muscle wasting during viral infection. The objective of this study was to characterize the main regulatory element of the grouper myostatin promoter and to study changes in promoter activity due to viral stimulation. In vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that the E-box E6 ...

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules play vital roles in triggering adaptive immune responses and are considered the most variable molecules in vertebrates. Recently, many studies have focused on the polymorphism and evolution mode of MHC in both model and non-model organisms. Here, we analyzed the MHC class II exon 2-encoding β chain in comparison with the mitochondrial Cytb g...

c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) regulates cellular responses to various extracellular stimuli, environmental stresses, pathogen infections, and apoptotic agents. Here, a JNK1, Ec-JNK1, was identified from orange-spotted grouper, Epinephelus coioides. Ec-JNK1 has been found involving in the immune response to pathogen challenges in vivo, and the infection of Singapore grouper iridovirus (SGIV) and...

Defensins are a group of cationic peptides that exhibit broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. In this study, we cloned and characterized a β-defensin from pituitary cDNA library of a protogynous hermaphroditic orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides). Interestingly, the β-defensin was shown to be dominantly expressed in pituitary and testis by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis, and its tra...

Interferon regulatory factor 2 (IRF-2) is a multifunctional transcription factor which exhibits both transcriptional activating and repressing activities in the IRF family. In this study, we report an IRF-2 gene isolated from orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides). The 1854bp full-length cDNA sequence of EcIRF-2 has been cloned, encoding a putative peptide of 336 amino acids which is hig...

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Curcuma zedoaria and Zingiber zerumbet on non-specific immune responses of grouper (Epinephelus coioides). Fish were fed an experimental diet containing 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.5 g/kg of C. zedoaria and Z. zerumbet mixed diets twice daily for two weeks. Non-specific immune parameters such as respiratory burst activity, reactive oxygen species, phago...

In natural waterways and estuaries, the understanding of turbulent mixing is critical to the knowledge of sediment transport, stormwater runoff during flood events, and release of nutrient-rich wastewater into ecosystems. In the present study, some field measurements were conducted in a small subtropical estuary with micro-tidal range and semi-diurnal tides during king tide conditions: i.e., th...