title: Molecular analysis of SAR1-related cDNAs from a mouse pituitary cell line.
abstract: Vesicular transport between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the Golgi in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae requires a Ras-like, small GTP-binding protein, Sar1p [1-3]. Whether a functional homologue operates in export from the ER in mammalian cells is unknown, nor is it clear if transport in other branches of the secretory pathway requires member(s) of a gene family. In this study, we used a PCR approach to examine the complexity of SAR1-related sequences expressed in mammalian cells that possess multiple secretory pathways. Amplification of cDNA sequences from rodent pituitary cells with primers corresponding to two conserved GTP binding domains of Sar1p yielded several clones with sequences homologous to Sar1 and/or the closely related ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF) family. Of these, only two showed closer homologies to S. cerevisiae Sar1 than members of the ARF family and are designated as mSARa and mSARb. Northern blot analysis shows that mSARa is expressed in most tissues including liver, heart, brain, skeletal muscle and kidney. In contrast, mSARb is preferentially expressed in skeletal muscle and liver. The full-length cDNA of mSARa isolated from a mouse pituitary AtT-20 cDNA library encodes a protein of 198 amino acids, and is 61.6% identical to Sar1p from S. cerevisiae. Thus in contrast to the large rab family of GTP-binding proteins, vesicular transport in mammalian cells appears to be mediated by a relatively small number of Sar1-related proteins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94720.
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Hammond
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Moore
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D002460:Cell Line; D004247:DNA; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020559:Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins; D010902:Pituitary Gland / Q000378:metabolism*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins
chemical_list: D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins; D004247:DNA; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins; D020559:Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins; C077395:SAR1 protein, S cerevisiae