title: Cloning and sequencing of a novel metallothionein gene in Mytilus galloprovincialis Lam.
abstract: Metallothionein (MT) is a ubiquitous, metal-inducible protein with an important role in the homeostasis and in the detoxification of heavy metals. This work reports the cloning and sequencing of a MT gene encoding a MT isoform (MT20-IIIa) in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis Lam, a lamellibranch mollusc known to accumulate and to detoxify large amounts of metal. The MT gene, lacking the 5' promoter region, is 1865 bp long and has a tripartite structure consisting of three exons and two introns. The putative open reading frame (ORF) encodes a polypeptide of 72 amino acids, which corresponds to the MT-I class, type 2 family (http://www.unizh.ch/~mtpage/classif.html). The structure of the gene and the putative MT20-III protein have been compared with those of other species. The putative biological significance of the differences at the amino acid level among the different MTs is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Avanzate, Università del Piemonte Orientale, C.so Borsalino, 54-15100 Alessandria, Italy.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ceratto
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dondero
authors.forename: Jan Willem
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: van de Loo
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Burlando
authors.forename: Aldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Viarengo
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D049872:Bivalvia; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D007438:Introns; D008668:Metallothionein / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D020033:Protein Isoforms; D008668:Metallothionein