comparative analysis of the shadoo gene between cattle and buffalo reveals significant differences牛和水牛之间shadoo基因的比较分析揭示了显著差异.pdfVIP

Comparative Analysis of the Shadoo Gene between Cattle and Buffalo Reveals Significant Differences 1. 1. 2 1 1,3 Hui Zhao , Lin-Lin Liu , Shou-Hui Du , Si-Qi Wang , Ya-Ping Zhang * 1 Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-resource, Yunnan University, Kunming, People’s Republic of China, 2 School of Life Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, People’s Republic of China, 3 State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, People’s Republic of China Abstract Background: While prions play a central role in the pathogenesis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, the biology of these proteins and the pathophysiology of these diseases remain largely unknown. Since no case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has ever been reported in buffalo despite their phylogenetic proximity to cattle, genetic differences may be driving the different susceptibilities of these two species to BSE. We thus hypothesized that differences in expression of the most recently identified member of the prion family or Shadoo (SPRN) gene may relate to these species- specific differences. Principal Findings: We first analyzed and compared the polymorphisms of the SPRN gene (,4.4 kb), including the putative promoter, coding and 39 regions, and further verified the entire ORF and putative promoter. This yielded a total of 117 fixed differences, remarkably: 1) a 12-bp insertion/deletion polymorphism in the hydrophobic domain of the cattle but not buffalo gene, introducing a four amino acid expansion/contraction in a series of 5 tandem Ala/Gly-containing repeats; 2) two fixed missense mutations (102SerRGly and 119ThrR