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Characterization of β2-microglobulin transcripts from two teleost species

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Abstract

Using degenerate primers based on published β2-microglobulin sequences we were able to obtain an expected 111 base pairs (bp) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) fragment from tilapia genomic DNA. The sequence of this fragment showed a high degree of similarity to mouse β2-microglobulin at the protein level. We used these primers in an “anchored PCR” to obtain a 213 bp PCR fragment from a carp cDNA library. This was then used to clone a full-length β2-microglobulin cDNA from carp. The carp sequence showed the highest similarity to rabbit β2-microglobulin. Both sequences showed strong similarities to all previously published vertebrate β2-microglobulin sequences. The predicted protein secondary structure of both the carp and tilapia clones was almost identical to the corresponding regions of previously known vertebrate β2-microglobulin protein sequences. When either the carp or tilapia probes were used against corresponding northern blots, they hybridized to a message of approximately 800–1000 bases long, which corresponds to the previously published lengths of β2-microglobulin mRNAs. Southern blotting indicated that β2-microglobulin was encoded by a single copy gene in both cases. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the sequences were related to the β2-microglobulins of higher vertebrates but grouped together in an ancestral position.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Gene Probe Laboratory, Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, B3H 4J1, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Brian Dixon & Bill Pohajdak

  2. Department of Experimental Animal Morphology and Cell Biology, Wageningen Agricultural University, Marijkeweg 40, 6709 PB, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    René J. M. Stet & Saskia H. M. van Erp

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  1. Brian Dixon
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  2. René J. M. Stet
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  3. Saskia H. M. van Erp
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  4. Bill Pohajdak
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Additional information

The nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper have been submitted to the GenBank nucleotide sequence database and have been assigned the accession numbers L05536 (carp), L05537 (tilapia).

Correspondence to: B. Pohajdak.

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Dixon, B., Stet, R.J.M., van Erp, S.H.M. et al. Characterization of β2-microglobulin transcripts from two teleost species. Immunogenetics 38, 27–34 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00216387

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00216387

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