Cloning, genomic organization, alternative transcripts and expression analysis of CD99L2, a novel paralog of human CD99, and identification of evolutionary conserved motifs.
Human CD99 (MIC2) is a 32 kDa cell surface protein and its encoding gene is localized to the pseudoautosomal regions of both Xp and Yp chromosomes. Although sequences of several genes such as human PBDX and MIC2R are known to be related to that of CD99, the murine counterpart of CD99 has not been reported. Here we have identified a novel CD99 mouse paralog, named as CD99L2 (CD99 antigen-like 2), and its human, rat and zebrafish genes. Unlike the rapidly evolved CD99 gene, these CD99L2 genes were highly conserved among those species. However, the genomic organization of human and mouse CD99L2 genes showed a difference in their exon numbers possibly due to exon duplication during evolution. In addition, comparative analysis of the cDNA sequences identified the presence of variants in the region around the exons 3 and 4 even within a species due to a differential splicing event, resulting in species-specific patterns in their transcripts. As determined by in situ hybridization analysis, the CD99L2 gene appeared to be expressed particularly high in neuronal cells despite its ubiquitous distribution. The highly expression on neuronal cells without any variations between species reflects a dominant role of this molecule during neural development. Amino acid sequence alignment revealed five putative functional regions highly conserved between CD99L2 and CD99, indicating a close relationship between the two genes. Moreover, human and mouse CD99L2 were located on their X chromosomes, respectively, whereas the zebrafish mic2l1 gene was in the LG7 chromosome. These observations support the inference that the evolutionary conserved gene, CD99L2, originated from a common ancestor gene of CD99, and its high conservation among species implies at least some essential function.
Suh
Young Ho
YH
Department of Pathology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28 Yongon-dong, Chongno-gu, South Korea.
Shin
Young Kee
YK
Kook
Myeong-Cherl
MC
Oh
Kwon Ik
KI
Park
Weon Seo
WS
Kim
Seok Hyung
SH
Lee
Im-Soon
IS
Park
Hyo Jin
HJ
Huh
Tae-Lin
TL
Park
Seong Hoe
SH
D000071443:12E7 Antigen; D017398:Alternative Splicing / Q000235:genetics*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005091:Exons; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005796:Genes / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D051381:Rats; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D026801:Synteny; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D014960:X Chromosome / Q000235:genetics; D015027:Zebrafish
D000071443:12E7 Antigen; D015703:Antigens, CD; C522605:Cd99 protein, mouse; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004247:DNA