First published online April 18, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 1696-1708 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02198
COX2 in a euryhaline teleost, Fundulus heteroclitus: primary sequence, distribution, localization, and potential function in gills during salinity acclimation
Keith P. Choe1,2,*,
Justin Havird1,2,
Rachel Rose1,2,
Kelly Hyndman1,2,
Peter Piermarini3 and
David H. Evans1,2
1 Department of Zoology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611,
USA
2 Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Salisbury Cove, ME 04672,
USA
3 Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University School of
Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA

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Fig. 1. Amino acid alignment of chordate cyclooxygenases (labeled by genus). Gaps
(dashes) were introduced to maintain alignment. All amino acids that are
identical or similar to those of the mouse COX2 are shaded (Blosum 62 scoring
matrix with the following amino acid groups considered similar: DN, EQ, ST,
KR, FYW and LIVM). The dimerization domains were well conserved in all the
vertebrates, but not in the urochordate (Ciona). The membrane-binding
domain was well conserved in all species. The catalytic domain begins just
after the second dimerization domain and constitutes about 80% of the protein.
When folded properly, the catalytic domain is further divided into
cyclo-oxygenase and peroxidase active sites. Within the cyclooxygenase site,
active site tyrosine and serine (ASA-acetylated) residues are conserved in all
species (Simmons et al.,
2004 ). Importantly, the substitution of an isoleucine for a valine
within the cyclooxygenase active site of COX1 only occurs in mammalian COX1.
This substitution allows some drugs to be COX2 specific (Gierse et al.,
1996a), and therefore these drugs would not be expected to discriminate
between COX1 and COX2 of non-mammalian vertebrates. Within the peroxidase
active site, the proximal histidine that binds heme is conserved in all
species. 1315 amino acids of mouse COX2 that were used as an antigen to
generate antibody 126 are conserved in killifish COX2. GenBank accession
numbers are, from top to bottom: COX2 Mus (Q05769),
Gallus (P27607), Fundulus (AAS21313), and
Onchorynchus (CAB46017); COX1 Mus (NP_032995),
Gallus (XP_425326), Onchorynchus (CAC10360) and
Squalus (AAL37727); COXa Ciona (scaffold 118); COXb
Ciona (scaffold 207).
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Fig. 2. Phylogenetic tree of chordate COX homologues. Database searches were used
to find COX homologues in Fugu and Ciona. The tree was
constructed using the neighbor-joining method with Poisson-correction, and
numbers indicate bootstrap values for 1000 replicates. All homologues are
labeled by genus. GenBank accession numbers are, from top to bottom: COX1
Homo (AAL33601), Mus (NP_032995), Gallus
(XP_425326), Danio (NP_705942), Onchorhynchus (CAC10360),
Salvelinus (AAF14529), Fugu 1a (FuguGenscan_21183),
Fugu 1b (FuguGenscan_4741); COX2 Homo (BAA05698),
Mus (Q05769), Gallus (P27607), Danio (NP_705943),
Onchorhynchus (CAB46017), Salvelinus (AAD45896),
Fundulus (AAS21313), Fugu (FuguGenscan_3088); COXa
Ciona (scaffold 118), COXb Ciona (scaffold 207).
Scale bar represents 20% amino acid replacement per site.
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Fig. 3. Multiple tissue semi-quantitative PCR. Multiplex PCRs with primer pairs for
COX2 and a 315 bp fragment of the 18S ribosome were conducted with randomly
primed killifish cDNA as a template. The 479 base pair COX2 fragment was
amplified, in decreasing order, from gill, opercular epithelium, kidney,
heart, stomach, intestine and brain. 18S was amplified approximately equally
from the cDNA of all tissues. 100 bp ladder molecular mass markers were run in
the lanes to the left and right of samples.
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Fig. 4. Representative light micrographs of gill sections from killifish that
demonstrate the localization of COX2 protein. Gill sections were incubated
with antibody 160126 (A,C), antibody 160126 and antigen (B), or antibody
5 (D). Peroxidase substrates used to label antibodies were brown
(160126=COX2) and blue (Na+/K+-ATPase). No
immunolabeling was observed in negative control sections that were incubated
with antibody 160126 and excess antigen followed by multilink (anti-mouse,
rabbit and donkey) secondary antibodies (B); however, strong immunolabeling
occurred in a population of epithelial cells with antibody 160126 (A). In
serial sections, immunolabeling with antibody 160126 was always in cells with
Na+/K+-ATPase (C,D); arrows mark cells that stained with
both antibodies. Lamellae are numbered for clarity. Scale bars, 50 µm.
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Fig. 5. Relative expression of (A) COX2, (B) CFTR, (C) NKCC1 and (D) NKA1 mRNA was
measured by quantitative real-time PCR in gills following chronic acclimation
to seawater (SW; white bars) or freshwater (FW; black bars). Values are means
± s.e.m., N=6, *P<0.05.
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Fig. 6. Relative expression of (A) COX2, (B) CFTR, (C) NKCC1 and (D) NKA1 mRNA was
measured by quantitative real-time PCR in gills following acute transfer from
freshwater (FW) to seawater (SW; solid lines) or from seawater to freshwater
(broken lines). To adjust for different starting expression levels between the
two salinities, the relative expression values of the freshwater to seawater
series was standardized to the relative chronic salinity means of
Fig. 5. Values are means
± s.e.m., N=5 or 6, *P<0.05 for FW to SW,
P<0.05 for SW to FW.
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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2006