Studies of JAK/STAT signaling in Atlantic salmon

• Main Author: Sobhkhez, Mehrdad
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: UiT The Arctic University of Norway 2014
• Subjects: VDP::Teknologi: 500::Bioteknologi: 590; VDP::Technology: 500::Biotechnology: 590; DOKTOR-002; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/6440

The papers of this thesis are not available in Munin: 1. Mehrdad Sobhkhez, Tom Hansen, Dimitar B. Iliev, Astrid Skjesol, Jorunn B. Jørgensen: 'The Atlantic salmon protein tyrosine kinase Tyk2: molecular cloning, modulation of expression and function', Developmental & Comparative Immunology (2013), vol. 41(4):553–563. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dci.2013.07.008 2. Sobhkhez, M., Skjesol, A., Thomassen E., Greiner–Tollersrud L., Iliev, D.B., Sun, B., Robertsen B. & J. B. Jørgensen: 'Structural and functional characterization of salmon STAT1, STAT2 and IRF9 homologs sheds light on IFN signaling in teleosts' (manuscript). 3. Astrid Skjesol, Theresa Liebe, Dimitar B. Iliev, Ernst I Thomassen, Linn G. Tollersrud, Mehrdad Sobhkhez, Lisbeth Lindenskov Joensen, Chris J. Secombes and Jorunn B. Jørgensen: 'Functional conservation of suppressors of cytokine signaling proteins between teleosts and mammals: Atlantic salmon SOCS1 binds to JAK/STAT family members and suppresses type I and II IFN signaling', Developmental & Comparative Immunology (2014), 45(1):177–189. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dci.2014.02.009 In mammals the JAK-STAT pathway plays a significant role in mediating the biological activities of both type I and type II IFN, where JAKs are receptor associated kinases and STATs the transcription factors they activate. At the start of this project the knowledge of the JAK-STAT pathway in fish in general was scarce and there were few reports describing the function of any JAK-STAT family member in the Atlantic salmon. There was also very limited knowledge about molecules involved in regulation of this signaling pathway in fish. In this project period we have cloned and / or initiated studies of the functional activity of the transcription factors STAT1, STAT2 and IRF9 and also the TYK2 kinase, as well as several members of the suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) family derived from salmon.