title: Molecular cloning of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)-beta subunit cDNA from duck pituitary.
abstract: We have cloned FSH-beta cDNA from duck pituitary gland by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and rapid amplification of cDNA end (RACE) methods. The cloned duck FSH-beta cDNA contains 1909-bp nucleotides including 396-bp of open-reading frame and 1491-bp of 3'-untranslational region. The open-reading frame encodes a 131-amino acid protein with a putative 20-amino acid signal peptide and a putative 111-amino acid mature protein. The deduced amino acid sequence shows a remarkable similarity (94-98%) to those of other avian FSH-beta subunits; while it exhibits lower similarities with those of turtles (82-84%), mammals (63-71%), and amphibians (53-57%). The structural model analysis of duck FSH suggests that the cysteine-knot and beta-strands for maintaining the specific structural frame, and the "seat-belt" loop for specific binding to FSH receptor have been conserved in tetrapodian FSH-betas.
authors: Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors: San-Tai
authors: ST
authors: Shen
authors: Yi-Sheng
authors: YS
authors: Cheng
authors: Tzu-Yun
authors: TY
authors: Shen
authors: John Yuh-Lin
authors: JY
authors: Yu