PUBLICATION
A Novel Prolactin-like Protein (PRL-L) Gene in Chickens and Zebrafish: Cloning and Characterization of Its Tissue Expression
- Authors
- Wang, Y., Li, J., Yan Kwok, A.H., Ge, W., and Leung, F.C.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-091101-12
- Date
- 2010
- Source
- General and comparative endocrinology 166(1): 200-210 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Ge, Wei
- Keywords
- Prolactin, Prolactin-like protein, Pituitary, Chicken, Zebrafish
- MeSH Terms
-
- Testis/metabolism
- Humans
- Cell Line
- Chickens*
- Finches
- Chromosome Mapping
- Chick Embryo
- Base Sequence
- Pituitary Gland/metabolism
- Zebrafish*
- Muscles/metabolism
- Gills/metabolism
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Rats
- Promoter Regions, Genetic
- Female
- Tetraodontiformes
- Ovary/metabolism
- Animals
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Male
- Sequence Alignment
- Prolactin/genetics*
- Brain/metabolism
- PubMed
- 19854191 Full text @ Gen. Comp. Endocrinol.
Citation
Wang, Y., Li, J., Yan Kwok, A.H., Ge, W., and Leung, F.C. (2010) A Novel Prolactin-like Protein (PRL-L) Gene in Chickens and Zebrafish: Cloning and Characterization of Its Tissue Expression. General and comparative endocrinology. 166(1):200-210.
Abstract
In this study, a full-length cDNA encoding a prolactin-like protein (PRL-L) was cloned from chicken brain tissues using RT-PCR. This putative PRL-L precursor has 225 amino acids in length and shares 30-35% amino acid sequence identity with prolactin (PRL) of chicken, zebrafish, Xenopus, rat and human. Using RT-PCR, the mRNA expression of PRL-L in chicken tissues was further examined. Unlike the predominant expression of PRL in pituitary, PRL-L was found to be widely expressed in adult chicken extra-pituitary tissues with only minimal expression detected in pituitary. In day-7 chicken embryos, the expression of PRL-L, but not PRL, was also detected in all extra-pituitary tissues examined. In line with this finding, the 5' flanking region of chicken PRL-L (cPRL-L) gene, but not PRL gene, displayed a strong promoter activity in cultured DF-1 cell (a chicken embryonic fibroblast cell line), suggesting that the basal expression of PRL-L gene is controlled by a transcriptional regulatory mechanism different from that of PRL gene. As the same findings in chickens, PRL-like protein(s), which share high amino acid sequence (42-86%) identity with chicken PRL-L, was identified in several non-mammalian vertebrate species including zebra finch, tiger puffer, green puffer and zebrafish. RT-PCR assay demonstrated that zebrafish PRL-L, similar to chicken PRL-L, is expressed in extra-pituitary tissues including brain, gill, muscle, ovary and testis. Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that a novel PRL-like protein exists in some non-mammalian vertebrates and may play an important role in target tissues, such as extra-pituitary tissues of chickens and zebrafish.
Genes / Markers
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping