Investigation of structural proteins in sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) body wall

Abstract

Structural proteins play critical roles in the food quality, especially texture properties, of sea cucumbers and their products. Most of the previous studies on sea cucumbers focused on few individual proteins, which limited our understanding of how structural proteins influenced the quality of sea cucumbers. Inspired by the clarification of sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) genome, we established an integrated data of structural proteins in the sea cucumber body wall. A portfolio of 2018 structural proteins was screened out from the sea cucumber annotated proteome by bioinformatics analysis. The portfolio was divided into three divisions, including extracellular matrix proteins, muscle proteins, and proteases, and further classified into 18 categories. The presence of 472 proteins in the sea cucumber body wall was confirmed by using a proteomics approach. Moreover, comparative proteomics analysis revealed the spatial distribution heterogeneity of structural proteins in the sea cucumber body wall at a molecular scale. This study suggested that future researches on sea cucumbers could be performed from an integrated perspective, which would reshape the component map of sea cucumber and provide novel insights into the understanding of how the food quality of sea cucumber was determined on a molecular level.

Extraction and Characterization of Collagen from Sand Sea Cucumber (Holothuria scabra)

“…Furthermore, the presence of the other protein bands in the SDS-PAGE indicates a smaller size than the collagen band size, especially in the extract solution from system IV (M4) after gradual dilution D2 and D3, that might represent other structural proteins of the sand sea cucumber body wall that were also extracted during the extraction. Wang et al (2020) reported that the body wall of Apostichopus japonicus contains structural proteins, which were divided into three divisions, i.e., extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, muscle proteins, and proteases confirmed by using a proteomics approach. The ECM proteins consist of collagens, proteoglycans, and glycoproteins.…”

Effect of sea cucumber peptides on the immune response and gut microbiota composition in ovalbumin-induced allergic mice

“…Sea cucumber ( Apostichopus japonicus ), which belongs to the Echinodermata phylum and the Holothuroidea class, is an important commercially farmed species in China, Japan and Korea because of its high nutritional value. 19 It has been reported that sea cucumber contains many biologically active substances and nutrients, such as proteins (polypeptides), polysaccharides (oligosaccharides), lipids in organics, vitamins (A, B1, B2 and B3), and minerals, especially calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. 20 Meanwhile, sea cucumber also showed many biological activities, such as anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antimicrobial, immunoregulatory, anti-hypertension and so forth.…”

Physicochemical and Biochemical Characterization of Collagen from Stichopus cf. horrens Tissues for Use as Stimuli-Responsive Thin Films

“…monotuberculatus, , and A. japonicus, , were made available. Distinct characteristics were identified among sea cucumber collagen, wherein the thermal stability and denaturation temperature of marine collagen were found to be generally lower compared to mammalian-derived collagen .…”