title: Growth hormone and prolactin in Andrias davidianus: cDNA cloning, tissue distribution and phylogenetic analysis.
abstract: The Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) is one of the largest and 'living fossil' species of amphibian. To obtain genetic information for this species, the cDNAs encoding growth hormone (adGH) and prolactin (adPRL) were cloned from a pituitary cDNA library. The isolated adGH cDNA consisted of 864 bp and encoded a propeptide of 215 amino acids, while the cDNA of adPRL was 1106 bp in length and encoded a putative peptide of 229 amino acids. Expression of the GH and PRL mRNA was only detected in the pituitary. Phylogenetic analyses were performed based on the isolated pituitary hormone sequences using maximum parsimony and neighbor-joining algorithms. The clustering results are similar to that based on the morphological characteristics or the rRNA genes, which indicate that the two orders (Anura and Caudata) of amphibian were monophyletic, and that A. davidianus was diverged early in the Caudate clade. These results indicated that both the GH and PRL sequence might be useful to study the phylogenies of relatively moderate evolved groups.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Institute of Aquatic Economic Animals and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Aquatic Economic Animals, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China.
authors.forename: Liping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zining
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiaochun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Danqi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Junhai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Haoran
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010902:Pituitary Gland / Q000378:metabolism; D011388:Prolactin / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014562:Caudata / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D012337:RNA, Ribosomal, 18S; D011388:Prolactin; D013006:Growth Hormone