Differential and Tissue-specific Expression of Mitochondrial
Elongation Factor Tu and Ts during Development

CHEN Li, XU Qing, LIU Xu-Lei, ZHAO Jing and MA Lan^*
( State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai 200032, China )

Abstract　　The mitochondrial elongation factors Tu and Ts (EF-Tu_mt and EF-Ts_mt) are nuclear gene-encoded mitochondrial proteins and play important roles in growth and development. We prepared antibodies against EF-Tu_mt and EF-Ts_mt using purified recombinant EF-Tu_mt and EF-Ts_mt. Western analysis indicates EF-Tu_mt and EF-Ts_mt are expressed differently in various tissues. Their expression in heart and liver increased during development and reached plateau at maturation. Expression of EF-Tu_mt and EF-Ts_mt exhi-bited similar tissue-specificity and changed synchronically during development. These results suggest that expression levels of EF-Tu_mt and EF-Ts_mt may be regulated by a similar mechanism related to the metabolic state of the cells.
Key Words　　Mitochondrial elongation factor Tu and Ts; gene expression

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