title: Isolation of the feline alpha1,3-galactosyltransferase gene, expression in transfected human cells and its phylogenetic analysis.
abstract: The enzyme alpha 1,3-galactosyltransferase (alpha1,3-GT), which catalyzes synthesis of terminal alpha-galactosyl epitopes (Gal alpha1,3Gal beta1-4GlcNAc-R), is produced in non-primate mammals, prosimians and new-world monkeys, but not in old-world monkeys, apes and humans. We cloned and sequenced a cDNA that contains the coding sequence of the feline alpha1,3-GT gene. Flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that the alpha-galactosyl epitope was expressed on the surface of a human cell line transduced with an expression vector containing this cDNA, and this alpha-galactosyl epitope expression subsided by alpha-galactosidase treatment. The open reading frame of the feline alpha1,3-GT cDNA is 1,113 base pairs in length and encodes 371 amino acids. The nucleotide sequence and its deduced amino acid sequence of the feline alpha1,3-GT gene are 88-90% and 85-87%, respectively, similar to the reported sequences of the bovine, porcine, marmoset and cebus monkey alpha1,3-GT genes, while they are 88% and 82-83%, respectively, similar to those of the orangutan and human alpha1,3-GT pseudogenes, and 81% and 77%, respectively, similar to the murine alpha1,3-GT gene. Thus, the alpha1,3-GT genes and pseudogenes of mammals are highly similar. Ratios of non-synonymous nucleotide changes among the primate pseudogenes as well as the primate genes are still higher than the ratios of non-primates, suggesting that the primate alpha1,3-GT genes tend to be divergent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology and Preventive Medicine, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan.
authors.forename: Bibhuti Bhusan
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Roy
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jinno-Oue
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shinagawa
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Kazushi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: Nobuaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Hiroo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hoshino
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002415:Cats / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005700:Galactosyltransferases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D005700:Galactosyltransferases