title: The protochordate Ciona intestinalis has a protein like full-length vertebrate fibrinogen.
abstract: In a recent review, a putative fibrinogen-like protein in the protochordate Ciona intestinalis was noted. Unfortunately, computer-directed splicing had omitted several exons, mistakenly generating a single long polypeptide chain. In fact, 3 consecutive genes exist, the translated versions of which are homologous to individual vertebrate fibrinogen chains. The circulating form is likely a 6-chain covalent dimer, just as occurs in vertebrates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, Calif., USA. rdoolittle@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: Russell F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Doolittle
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002938:Ciona intestinalis / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics*; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D005340:Fibrinogen