Molecular cloning of the feline telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene and its expression in cell lines and normal tissues.
Telomerase is a kind of reverse transcriptase which synthesizes and elongates telomeres. Telomerase activity is detected in many naturally occurring tumors and its expression appears to play an important role in the immortalization of tumor cells. In this study, cDNA encoding the feline telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene was cloned partially from a feline lymphoma cell line. The clone obtained in this study was 237 bp long including a reverse transcriptase motif 2, and was shown to have amino acid sequence similarity of 81.0% and 58.2% with human and mouse TERT cDNAs, respectively. TERT mRNA expression was detected in telomerase-positive cells (FL74, FT-1, 3201, FKNp, FONp, and FYMp), and was not detected in telomerase-negative cells (normal fibroblasts and CRFK). TERT mRNA was detected in various normal tissues including the spleen, pancreas, stomach, cerebrum, testis, bone marrow, lymph node and thymus, and relatively high-level expression was observed in the small bowel and large bowel. No expression of TERT mRNA was detected in the liver, adrenal gland, urinary bladder and lung. The TERT cDNA clone and the results obtained in this study will be useful for further investigation of feline tumors.
Yazawa
Mitsuhiro
M
Department of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Okuda
Masaru
M
Uyama
Rina
R
Nakagawa
Takayuki
T
Kanaya
Noriko
N
Nishimura
Ryohei
R
Sasaki
Nobuo
N
Masuda
Kenichi
K
Ohno
Koichi
K
Tsujimoto
Hajime
H
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D002415:Cats / Q000235:genetics*; D002460:Cell Line; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D004064:Digestive System / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D008221:Lymphoid Tissue / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019098:Telomerase / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C509186:TERT protein, human; D019098:Telomerase; C509187:Tert protein, mouse