Identification and subcellular localisation of hexokinase-2 in Nosema bombycis

Hexokinase (HXK) is the first key enzyme in the glycolytic pathway and plays an extremely important role in energy metabolism. By searching the microsporidian database, we found a sequence (NBO_27g0008) of Nosema bombycis Nagali, 1857 with high similarity to hexokinase-2, and named it as NbHXK2. The NbHXK2 gene has 894 bp and encodes 297 amino acids with 34.241 kD molecular weight and 5.26 isoelectric point. NbHXK2 contains 31 phosphorylation sites and 4 potential N-glycosylation sites with signal peptides and no transmembrane domain. Multiple sequence alignment showed that NbHXK2 shares more than 40% amino acid identity with that of other microsporidia, and the homology with hexokinase-2 of Nosema tyriae Canning, Curry, Cheney, Lafranchi-Tristem, Kawakami, Hatakeyama, Iwano et Ishihara, 1999, Nosema pyrausta (Paillot, 1927) and Nosema ceranae Fries, Feng, da Silva, Slemenda et Pieniazek, 1996 was 89.17%, 87.82% and 69.86%, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on the amino acid sequence of hexokinase showed that all microsporidia cluster together in the same clade, and are far away from animals, plants and fungi, and that N. bombycis is closely related to N. tyriae; N. pyrausta; N. ceranae and Nosema apis Zander, 1909. Immunolocalisation with the prepared polyclonal antibody showed that NbHXK2 was mainly distributed in the cytoplasm and plasmalemma in proliferative, sporulation stage and mature spore of N. bombycis. qRT-PCR assay showed that the NbHXK2 expressed at higher level during spore germination and at early stage of proliferation. These results indicate that N. bombycis may use its own glycolytic pathways to supply energy for infection and development, especially germination and in the early stage of proliferation, and acquire energy from the host through certain ways as well.