title: The sequence of chick alpha-actinin reveals homologies to spectrin and calmodulin.
abstract: We have sequenced a cDNA, isolated from a chick embryo fibroblast lambda gt11 library, that encodes all 887 amino acids of alpha-actinin. Sequence from 10 different peptides from chick smooth muscle alpha-actinin was found to match that derived from the cDNA. The deduced protein sequence can be divided into three distinct domains: (a) the N-terminal 240 amino acid contains a highly conserved region (compared with Dictyostelium alpha-actinin) which probably represents the actin-binding domain, (b) amino acids 270-740 contain four repeats of a spectrin-like sequence, and (c) the C-terminal sequence contains two EF-hand Ca2+-binding sites. Each of these sites is defective in at least one oxygen-containing Ca2+-chelating amino acid side chain, suggesting that they are nonfunctional. Southern blots suggest that the alpha-actinin cDNA described here hybridizes to only one gene in chicken. Northern blots reveal only one size class of mRNA in fibroblasts and smooth muscle, but no hybridizing species could be detected in skeletal muscle poly(A+) RNA. The results are consistent with the view that smooth and skeletal muscle alpha-actinins are encoded by separate genes, which are considerably divergent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Leicester, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Baron
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Davison
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Critchley
mesh_terms: D000185:Actinin / Q000032:analysis*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D002147:Calmodulin / Q000032:analysis*; D002642:Chick Embryo; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D013049:Spectrin / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D002147:Calmodulin; D000185:Actinin; D013049:Spectrin; D004247:DNA; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes; D002118:Calcium