Characterization of metallothionein cDNAs induced by cadmium in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
cDNAs of metallothioneins (MTs) in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans were characterized. The MT-II clone encodes 62 amino acid residues and the predicted Mr is 6462. The MT-I clone contains an additional 12 residues at the C-terminal end, and the predicted Mr is 7959. There is a considerable similarity between MT-I and MT-II. Both of these proteins are cysteine-rich and, with a few exceptions, show a good alignment of cysteine residues. No obvious sequence relationship in the coding region was discernible between C. elegans MTs and mammalian MTs, aside from Cys-Cys, Cys-Xaa-Cys, and Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Xaa-Cys segments. However, 3'-untranslated region of cDNAs of C. elegans MT-I and -II have some consensus sequences found in mammalian MT cDNAs, suggesting that these regions may have some roles in the regulation of MT-gene expression.
Imagawa
M
M
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, Suita, Japan.
Onozawa
T
T
Okumura
K
K
Osada
S
S
Nishihara
T
T
Kondo
M
M
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002104:Cadmium / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002107:Caenorhabditis / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003545:Cysteine; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008668:Metallothionein / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
D002104:Cadmium; D004247:DNA; D008668:Metallothionein; D003545:Cysteine