Identification of the mouse H-ficolin gene as a pseudogene and orthology between mouse ficolins A/B and human L-/M-ficolins.
Ficolin is a collagenous lectin which plays a crucial role in innate immunity. Three and two ficolins have been identified in human and mice, respectively. To identify the mouse homologue of human H-ficolin and to elucidate the orthology between mouse ficolins A/B and human L-/M-ficolins, the gene structures were explored. The mouse homologue of the H-ficolin gene was identified as a pseudogene on chromosome 4. The mouse ficolin A gene was located far from the ficolin B gene on chromosome 2, whereas the human L-ficolin and M-ficolin genes were close in the region homologous to the ficolin B locus. Together with the exon-intron structures and the phylogenetic tree, these results suggest that ficolin B is the mouse orthologue of M-ficolin and that the genes encoding serum-type ficolins, ficolin A and L-ficolin, were generated independently from the ficolin B/M-ficolin lineage each in mice and primates.
Departmant of Biochemistry, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, 1-Hikarigaoka, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan. yendo@fmu.ac.jp
Yuichi
Y
Endo
Yu
Y
Liu
Kazuko
K
Kanno
Minoru
M
Takahashi
Misao
M
Matsushita
Teizo
T
Fujita
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics*; D037102:Lectins / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011544:Pseudogenes / Q000235:genetics*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D000097604:Ficolins
D037102:Lectins; D000097604:Ficolins