title: A Bombyx mori gene, BmChi-h, encodes a protein homologous to bacterial and baculovirus chitinases.
abstract: We have cloned and characterized a novel chitinase gene (BmChi-h) from the silkworm, Bombyx mori. BmChi-h cDNA has an open reading frame of 1,665 nucleotides, encoding a protein of 555 amino acid residues. The predicted protein shared extensive similarities with bacterial and baculovirus chitinases in both amino acid sequences (73% identity with Serratia marcescens chiA and 63% with Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus chiA) and domain architectures. BmChi-h was a single-copy gene and located on chromosome 7. The expression of BmChi-h mRNA was observed in a stage- and tissue-specific manner that was almost identical to that of another chitinase gene previously cloned from B. mori. We further determined the overall genomic organization of BmChi-h. There was no intron in the ORF of BmChi-h. However, BmChi-h was transcribed from three promoters, which generated three isoforms in the 5'-UTR of the transcript. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that ancestral species of B. mori acquired the chitinase gene from a bacterium or an ancestral baculovirus via horizontal gene transfer.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Insect Genetics and Bioscience, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Yayoi 1-1-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan.
authors.forename: Takaaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Daimon
authors.forename: Koutaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: Kazuei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mita
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okano
authors.forename: Masataka G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimada
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D016367:Baculoviridae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D012831:Bombyx / Q000235:genetics*; D002688:Chitinases / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D019476:Insect Proteins; D002688:Chitinases