title: Molecular cloning of the feline telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene and its expression in cell lines and normal tissues.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuhiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yazawa
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okuda
authors.forename: Rina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Uyama
authors.forename: Takayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kanaya
authors.forename: Ryohei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohno
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tsujimoto
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C509186:TERT protein, human; D019098:Telomerase; C509187:Tert protein, mouse