title: The developmental expression of taxon-specific crystallins in the duck lens.
abstract: The three crystallins, alpha B-crystallin, tau-crystallin/alpha-enolase and epsilon-crystallin/lactate dehydrogenase B are all stress induced proteins and may thus share common regulatory elements. However, no evidence was found for coordinate expression of these three genes during duck lens development. The alpha B- and alpha-enolase/tau-crystallin mRNAs accumulate with similar kinetics between day 12 and day 24 of embryonic development but differ in their epithelial versus fibre cell location; the LDH-B/epsilon-crystallin transcript shares its preferential location in the fibre cell with alpha B-crystallin but differs in its developmental pattern of expression. The accumulation of LDH-B/epsilon-crystallin mRNA in heart and lens followed a similar developmental pattern. In contrast, the alpha-enolase/tau-crystallin mRNA level in heart decreases while the level in lens rises. The LDH-B gene is used as a crystallin gene in duck but not in chicken. This species-specific difference may correlate with the difference in LDH-B activity between various chicken and duck tissues: the retina and pancreas in duck have significantly higher LDH-B activity than in chick, while heart, muscle, stomach, liver, intestine and kidney all have much higher LDH-B activity in chicken than in duck.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kraft
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Voorter
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wintjes
authors.forename: N H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Lubsen
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Schoenmakers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D002645:Chickens / Q000378:metabolism; D003459:Crystallins / Q000235:genetics*; D004372:Ducks / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004848:Epithelium / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006321:Heart / Q000196:embryology*; D007527:Isoenzymes; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D007908:Lens, Crystalline / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism; D010751:Phosphopyruvate Hydratase / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D003459:Crystallins; D007527:Isoenzymes; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase; D010751:Phosphopyruvate Hydratase