title: The structure and organization of the human carnitine/acylcarnitine translocase (CACT1) gene2.
abstract: The carnitine/acylcarnitine translocase (CACT) transports acylcarnitines into mitochondria in exchange for free carnitine and it is, therefore, essential for the fatty acid beta-oxidation pathway. We have determined the exon-intron structure of the human CACT gene, which is responsible for a genetic disorder of fatty acid oxidation called CACT deficiency. The gene spans about 16.5 kb and consists of nine exons with the translation start site in exon 1. All the splice acceptor and donor sites conform to the AG/GT rules. All the introns except one are located at the level of the sequences coding for the extramembranous loops of CACT. We have designed a series of intronic oligonucleotide primers for amplifying each of the CACT exons together with their flanking intronic sequences, in segments well suited to detect mutations that would affect splicing of mRNA as well as the coding sequence itself.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaco-Biology, Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Iacobazzi
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Naglieri
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Stanley
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Wanders
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palmieri
mesh_terms: D002333:Carnitine Acyltransferases / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000378:metabolism; D005091:Exons; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017384:Sequence Deletion
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D002333:Carnitine Acyltransferases