AccScience Publishing / MI / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/MI026130028
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Portunus trituberculatus cryptocyanin seizes swimming crab reovirus and improves crab survival

Jing Fang1,2 ,  Liping Zhang3 ,  Dengfeng Li1*
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1 Key Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology, School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang , China
2 Guangxi Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Disaster Processes and Ecological Protection Technology, College of Marine Sciences, Beibu Gulf University, Qinzhou, Guangxi , China
3 Ningbo Hongmeng Testing Co., Ltd., Ningbo, Zhejiang , China
MI, 026130028 https://doi.org/10.36922/MI026130028
Received: 25 March 2026 | Revised: 5 August 2026 | Accepted: 28 August 2026 | Published online: 17 September 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Crustaceans lack immunoglobulins, and their humoral immunity relies on immune factors present in the hemolymph. A native hemolymph protein with a molecular mass of approximately 120 kDa was found to bind the swimming crab (Portunus trituberculatus) reovirus (SCRV) via virus overlay protein binding assays. This protein was identified as cryptocyanin using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis and sequence alignment. The interaction between SCRV and cryptocyanin was confirmed by coimmunoprecipitation. In the antiviral assays in vivo, cryptocyanin enhanced the survival of P. trituberculatus. Our findings showed for the first time that cryptocyanin can seize viruses, suggesting that cryptocyanin may participate in anti‑infective immunity. This study identifies cryptocyanin as a novel and essential component of the invertebrate innate immune system and provides a theoretical basis for elucidating its function in antiviral defense mechanisms.

Keywords
Portunus trituberculatus
Reovirus
Cryptocyanin
Virus overlay protein binding assay
Coimmunoprecipitation
Funding
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program [Grant number 2018YFA0903000] and the Key Research and Development Project of Ningbo [Grant number 2022Z170 and 2024Z234].
Conflict of interest
Dengfeng Li is an Editorial Board Member of this journal, but was not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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Microbes & Immunity, Electronic ISSN: 3029-2883 Print ISSN: 3041-0886, Published by AccScience Publishing
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