title: Identification and characterization of the cDNA sequence encoding amelogenin in rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).
abstract: Amelogenins, the most abundant proteins in tooth enamel extracellular matrix (ECM), are essential for tooth amelogenesis. The nucleotide sequence of amelogenin gene (AMEL) for rabbit, as an important member of mammals and good continuously growing incisor model, is important for comparative and evolutional study. Previous studies about rabbit amelogenin proteins got no consensus yet even as to their existence or size. In this study, with combined usage of in silico and molecular cloning technologies, we identified sequences of two transcripts of rabbit amelogenin, resulting from the alternative splicing of the 45-bp exon 4. The coding regions of the two transcripts are of 567- and 522-bp, encoding 188 and 173 amino acids including a 17-residue signal peptide, respectively. Sequence analysis revealed that rabbit amelogenin features in extremely high GC-content in nucleotide sequence and Alanine content in protein sequence. Detailed comparison of amino acid sequence with other mammals showed that the rabbit amelogenin protein is conserved in the sites and regions important for protein functions. Overall, our results uncovered the mysteries about rabbit amelogenin and revealed its sequence peculiarities.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China.
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China.
authors.forename: Yumei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China. Electronic address: yansq@jlu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shouqing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China.
authors.forename: Hengtong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China.
authors.forename: Boxing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China.
authors.forename: Jiabao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China.
authors.forename: Zhihui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing / Q000235:genetics; D053523:Amelogenin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D053523:Amelogenin; D018076:DNA, Complementary
keywords: Amelogenin; High GC-content; MRNA sequence; Rabbit; Splicing transcripts