LAUSR

Abstract Though astaxanthin has drawn a lot of attention in the last couple of years because of their great antioxidative activity, the molecular mechanism of astaxanthin accumulation in shrimp is still unknown. In this study, a novel crustacyanin-like lipocalin gene that can participate in the accumulation of astaxanthin was isolated and cloned from Penaeus monodon (designated as PmCLL). Multiple alignments and evolutionary tree analysis indicated that PmCLL had the highest homology and the closest evolutionary relationship with the crustacyanin-like lipocalin from Penaeus vannamei. In order to clarify the function of PmCLL in astaxanthin accumulation, changes in astaxanthin content were detected after silenced or overexpressed PmCLL gene. Furthermore, the in vitro binding activity of the PmCLL recombinant protein and astaxanthin was tested using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method. In summary, the results obtained from the present study would help us understand the molecular mechanism of PmCLL involved in astaxanthin accumulation in P. monodon.