title: Molecular cloning, tissue distribution and quantitative analysis of two proopiomelanocortin mRNAs in Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus).
abstract: Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) plays an essential role in the stress response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and is the precursor of biologically active peptides such as adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH), beta-melanocyte-stimulation hormone (beta-MSH) and beta-endorphin. We have synthesized two different forms of POMC cDNA clones, POMC-I and POMC-II, from a pituitary cDNA library for Paralichthys olivaceus, or Japanese flounder. jfPOMC-I cDNA consists of 954bp and encodes a polypeptide of 216 amino acid residues, whereas jfPOMC-II consists of 971bp which encode a polypeptide of 194 amino acid residues. The high levels of jfPOMC-I and -II mRNAs detected in the pituitary tissue and moderate levels detected in the brain tissue plus our quantitative RT-PCR analysis, which showed there to be no significant difference between the levels of jfPOMC-I and -II mRNAs, indicate that there may be no functional separation between these two mRNAs in the flounder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Marine Biology, Pukyong National University, Busan 608-737, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyoung Sun
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyun-Woo
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Thomas T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Young Tae
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D005432:Flounder; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010902:Pituitary Gland / Q000378:metabolism; D011333:Pro-Opiomelanocortin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011333:Pro-Opiomelanocortin