title: Molecular identification of interleukin-2 in the lymphoid tissues of the common brushtail possum, Trichosurus vulpecula.
abstract: The common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is an Australian marsupial. Here we describe the identification of possum interleukin-2 in mitogen-stimulated lymph node cells. We used a strategy of Rapid amplification of cDNA ends using probes designed from recently-sequenced marsupial genomes to identify the IL2 gene and then confirmed that IL-2 expression in possum immune tissue occurs in a similar manner to that in their eutherian counterparts. The predictive possum IL-2 peptide showed 28% and 35% amino acid sequence homology with the mouse and human IL-2 molecules, respectively, consistent with the divergence found within this cytokine family. Despite this low sequence identity, possum IL-2 still possessed the characteristic hallmarks of mammalian IL-2, such as a predicted signal peptide and conserved family motifs.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Cross
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Duckworth
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Flenady
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Belov
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D048330:Trichosurus
chemical_list: D007376:Interleukin-2; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals