Thrombin-like enzymes from venom gland of Deinagkistrodon acutus: cDNA cloning, mechanism of diversity and phylogenetic tree construction.
OBJECTIVE
To clone cDNAs of thrombin-like enzymes (TLEs) from venom gland of Deinagkistrodon acutus and analyze the mechanisms by which their structural diversity arose.


METHODS
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and gene cloning techniques were used, and the cloned sequences were analyzed by using bioinformatics tools.


RESULTS
Novel cDNAs of snake venom TLEs were cloned. The possibilities of post-transcriptional recombination and horizontal gene transfer are discussed. A phylogenetic tree was constructed.


CONCLUSIONS
The cDNAs of snake venom TLEs exhibit great diversification. There are several types of structural variations. These variations may be attributable to certain mechanisms including recombination.
Zha
Xiang-dong
XD
School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei 230039, China. xdcha@163.com
Huang
He-sheng
HS
Zhou
Li-zhi
LZ
Liu
Jing
J
Xu
Kang-sen
KS
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017385:Sequence Homology; D013917:Thrombin / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014757:Viper Venoms / Q000737:chemistry*; D017819:Viperidae / Q000235:genetics
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D014757:Viper Venoms; D013917:Thrombin