Cloning and molecular characterization of the first innexin of the phylum annelida-expression of the gene during development.
A novel member of the innexin family (cv-inx) has been isolated from the annelid polychaete worm Chaetopterus variopedatus using a PCR approach on genomic DNA and sequence analysis on genomic DNA clones. The gene is present in a HindIII-HindIII segment of 2250 bp containing an uninterrupted open reading frame of 1196 bp encoding a protein of 399 amino acids. The predicted protein shows the typical structural features of innexins and consensus sites for phosphorylation. Analyses on genomic DNA demonstrate that cv-inx is a single copy gene with no introns in the coding region, exactly corresponding to the cDNA sequence. The gene expression is regulated during development as shown by Northern blots analyses of the RNA and by immunoreaction with antibodies against the protein at several embryonic stages. The finding of an innexin in the phylum Annelida, outside of the Ecdysozoa clade, and its peculiar gene structure suggest the necessity to reconsider the current hypothesis on the origin and evolution of gap junctional proteins.
Potenza
Nicoletta
N
Department of Genetics, General and Molecular Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Via Mezzocannone, 8, 80134 Naples, Italy.
del Gaudio
Rosanna
R
Rivieccio
Loredana
L
Russo
Giuseppina Maria Rosaria
GM
Geraci
Giuseppe
G
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017630:Connexins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011077:Polychaeta / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D017630:Connexins