title: Primary structure of chicken skeletal muscle and fibroblast alpha-actinins deduced from cDNA sequences.
abstract: The complete 897-amino-acid sequence of chicken skeletal muscle alpha-actinin and the 856-amino-acid sequence (97% of the entire sequence) of chicken fibroblast alpha-actinin have been determined by cloning and sequencing the cDNAs. Genomic Southern analysis with the cDNA sequences shows that skeletal and fibroblast alpha-actinins are encoded by separate single-copy genes. RNA blot analyzes show that the skeletal alpha-actinin gene is expressed in the pectoralis muscle and that the fibroblast gene is expressed in the gizzard smooth muscle as well as in the fibroblast. The deduced skeletal alpha-actinin molecule has a calculated Mr of 104 x 10(3), and each alpha-actinin can be divided into three domains: (1) the NH2-terminal highly conserved actin-binding domain, which shows similarity to the product of the Duchenne's muscular dystrophy locus; (2) the middle rod-shaped dimer-forming domain, which contains the spectrin-type repeat units; and (3) the COOH-terminal two EF-hand consensus regions. Comparison of the skeletal alpha-actinin sequence with the fibroblast and smooth muscle alpha-actinin sequences demonstrated that the EF-hand structure was conserved in all of these alpha-actinin sequences, despite the reported variability of the Ca2+ sensitivities of the actin-gelation by various alpha-actinin isoforms.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arimura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yanagisawa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Imamura
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Masaki
mesh_terms: D000185:Actinin / Q000235:genetics*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002642:Chick Embryo; D002645:Chickens; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009132:Muscles / Q000378:metabolism*; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000185:Actinin; D004247:DNA