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ISSN 0582-9879 Acta Biochim et Biophysica Sinica 2004, 36(7): 501–507 CN 31-1300/Q
Identification and Characterization of a Rat Novel Gene RSEP4 Expressed Specifically in Central Nervous System
Xi-Dao WANG1,2, Ling-Wei KONG1, Zhi-Qin XIE1, Yu-Qiu ZHANG3, Zhi-Xin LIN2, Zhi-Qi ZHAO3, Lei YU4, and Nai-He JING1*
1Laboratory of
Molecular Cell Biology, Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology, Institute of
Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China;
2School of Life
Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200030,
China;
3Institute of
Neurobiology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China;
4Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy,
College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Abstract The low-abundantly expressed genes composed the majorities of the mRNAs expressed in the central nervous system (CNS), and were thought to be important for the normal brain functions. Through differential screening a low-abundance cDNA sublibrary with mRNA from neuropathic pain of chronic constriction injury (CCI) model, we have identified a novel rat gene, rat spinal-cord expression protein 4 gene (RSEP4). The total length of RSEP4 cDNA is 2006 bp, with a 501 nucleotide open reading frame (ORF) that encodes a 167 amino acid polypeptide. Northern blot revealed that RSEP4 was expressed specifically in the CNS. In situ hybridization showed that the mRNA of RSEP4 was strongly expressed in the CA1, CA2, CA3 and DG regions of hippocampus, the Purkinje cells of cerebellum, and the small sensory neurons of dorsal horn and large motor neurons of ventral horn of spinal cord. Over-expression of RSEP4-EGFP fusion protein in the human embryonic kidney 293T cells showed that RSEP4 protein was mainly localized in the cell cytoplasm. These results suggest that RSEP4 may play some roles in the CNS.
Key words central nervous system (CNS); rat; Northern blot; in situ hybridization
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Received: April 29, 2004 Accepted: May 29, 2004
This work was supported by the grants from the National Key Basic Research and Development Program (G1999054000, 2002CB713802), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 39870283, 39930090, 90208011, 30300174)
*Corresponding author: Tel, 86-21-54921381; Fax, 86-21-54911011;
E-mail, [email protected]