MN-cadherin and its novel variant are transiently expressed in chick embryo spinal cord.
To isolate cDNAs that are involved in limb-motoneuron development, we compared mRNAs of lumbar and thoracic motoneurons purified from spinal cord of E4 chick embryo by differential display. In situ hybridization demonstrated that one of cDNAs is expressed exclusively in lateral motor column in spinal cord from E4 to E10. We identified two mRNA variants for the cDNA by library screening. The long form (788 amino acids) was identical to chick MN-cadherin. The short variant (543 amino acids) lacks the first two of five extracellular domains of MN-cadherin, which commonly exist in classical cadherins. The amino acid sequence of the short form is identical to that of the carboxyl terminal MN-cadherin, except for the distinct signal sequence. The ratio of mRNA of short form to long form was 1-20. cDNA transfection study revealed that the long form but not the short form MN-cadherin had cell adhesion activity.
Department of Anatomy, Biology and Medicine, Oita University Faculty of Medicine, Hasama-machi, Oita 879-5593, Japan. shirabe@med.oita-u.ac.jp
Komei
K
Shirabe
Yoshishige
Y
Kimura
Noritaka
N
Matsuo
Mikiko
M
Fukushima
Hidekatsu
H
Yoshioka
Hideaki
H
Tanaka
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015820:Cadherins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002642:Chick Embryo; D002645:Chickens; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D014018:Tissue Distribution
D015820:Cadherins; D020033:Protein Isoforms