title: BCL-G as a new candidate gene for immune responses in pigs: bioinformatic analysis and functional characterization.
abstract: BCL-G, also known as Bcl2-like14, is a unique member of the Bcl-2 family that plays an important role in regulating apoptosis in humans. In the present study, we assessed the biological activities of porcine BCL-G (pBCL-G). The open reading frame (ORF) of pBCL-G covered 990 bp and encoded 329 amino acids. The genomic structure of the pBCL-G gene was also determined. The deduced amino acid sequence of the pBCL-G cDNA was highly identical to homologs in other species. Furthermore, domain prediction showed that pBCL-G protein contains BH2 and BH3 domains, which are typical domains of the Bcl-2 family. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that BCL-G may function differently among species. Subcellular localization analysis showed that GFP-pBCL-G fusion protein is distributed in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Flow cytometric analysis proved that pBCL-G is a pro-apoptotic factor. This study is useful for understanding pBCL-G and offers a potential molecular model for the investigation of diseases related to human BCL-G.
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory of Virology, Immunology and Bioinformatics, College of Veterinary Medicine, Northwest A & F University, Yangling 712100, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, PR China.
authors.forename: Pengfei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Dengyun
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Lijun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.forename: Deli
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D019295:Computational Biology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013552:Swine / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2