{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,3]],"date-time":"2026-04-03T02:18:49Z","timestamp":1775182729247,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,27]],"date-time":"2021-09-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1632700800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"special research grant for the National Nonpro\ufb01t Institute (East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute)","award":["No. 2021M02"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No. 2021M02"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["No. 31772886"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No. 31772886"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012428","name":"Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund, CAFS","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["Grant No. 2020TD41"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Grant No. 2020TD41"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012428","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Leading Talent Project of Special Support Plan of Guangdong Province","award":["No. 2019TX05N067"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No. 2019TX05N067"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Marine Drugs"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Crustins are cysteine-rich cationic antimicrobial peptides with diverse biological functions including antimicrobial and proteinase inhibitory activities in crustaceans. Although a few crustins reportedly respond to white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection, the detailed antiviral mechanisms of crustins remain largely unknown. Our previous research has shown that SpCrus2, from mud crab Scylla paramamosain, is a type II crustin containing a glycine-rich region (GRR) and a cysteine-rich region (CRR). In the present study, we found that SpCrus2 was upregulated in gills after WSSV challenge. Knockdown of SpCrus2 by injecting double-stranded RNA (dsSpCrus2) resulted in remarkably increased virus copies in mud crabs after infection with WSSV. These results suggested that SpCrus2 played a critical role in the antiviral immunity of mud crab. A GST pull-down assay showed that recombinant SpCrus2 interacted specifically with WSSV structural protein VP26, and this result was further confirmed by a co-immunoprecipitation assay with Drosophila S2 cells. As the signature sequence of type II crustin, SpCrus2 GRR is a glycine-rich cationic polypeptide with amphipathic properties. Our study demonstrated that the GRR and CRR of SpCrus2 exhibited binding activities to VP26, with the former displaying more potent binding ability than the latter. Interestingly, pre-incubating WSSV particles with recombinant SpCrus2 (rSpCrus2), rGRR, or rCRR inhibited virus proliferation in vivo; moreover, rSpCrus2 and rGRR possessed similar antiviral abilities, which were much stronger than those of rCRR. These findings indicated that SpCrus2 GRR contributed largely to the antiviral ability of SpCrus2, and that the stronger antiviral ability of GRR might result from its stronger binding activity to the viral structural protein. Overall, this study provided new insights into the antiviral mechanism of SpCrus2 and the development of new antiviral drugs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/md19100544","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,27]],"date-time":"2021-09-27T10:39:20Z","timestamp":1632739160000},"page":"544","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["SpCrus2 Glycine-Rich Region Contributes Largely to the Antiviral Activity of the Whole-Protein Molecule by Interacting with VP26, a WSSV Structural Protein"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Yue","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology, Shantou University, Shantou 515063, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of East China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation, Ministry of Agriculture, East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Shanghai 200090, China"},{"name":"Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Chongqing Three Gorges Vocational College, Wanzhou, Chongqing 404155, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wen-Hong","family":"Fang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of East China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation, Ministry of Agriculture, East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Shanghai 200090, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2299-503X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hong-Yu","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology, Shantou University, Shantou 515063, China"},{"name":"Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xin-Cang","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of East China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation, Ministry of Agriculture, East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Shanghai 200090, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"402","DOI":"10.1016\/S0966-842X(00)01823-0","article-title":"The role of cationic antimicrobial peptides in innate host defences","volume":"8","author":"Hancock","year":"2000","journal-title":"Trends Microbiol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"389","DOI":"10.1038\/415389a","article-title":"Antimicrobial peptides of multicellular organisms","volume":"415","author":"Zasloff","year":"2002","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1551","DOI":"10.1038\/nbt1267","article-title":"Antimicrobial and host-defense peptides as new anti-infective therapeutic strategies","volume":"24","author":"Hancock","year":"2006","journal-title":"Nat. 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