Proinflammatory Caspase A Activation and an Antiviral State Are Induced by a Zebrafish Perforin after Possible Cellular and Functional Diversification from a Myeloid Ancestor.

In mammals, perforins play a central role in the granule-dependent cell death induced by natural killer T cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes, and participate both in the defense against virus-infected and neoplastic cells and in the recognition of nonself molecules by the immune system. Little is known about fish perforin genes. We examined the zebrafish with the aim of increasing our knowledge about the role of perforins. We characterized 6 perforin genes in the zebrafish genome, and we studied them at the evolutionary level in combination with expression patterns in several tissues and cell populations, during both larval development and in the course of a viral infection. Our results suggest the specialization of different cell types in the production of perforins. Moreover, functional diversification during the evolution of these molecules could be inferred from this study. In particular, one of the genes, prf19b, which is mainly produced by myeloid cells, seemed to be involved in antiviral defense, conferring protection after an in vivo infection.

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