Evolutionary conservation of the dystrophin central rod domain.

Dystrophin cDNA fragments encoding the C-terminal repeats of the central rod region have been expressed as fusion proteins. The polyclonal antisera raised to the purified fusion proteins have been characterized and neither antiserum cross-reacted with dystrophin-related protein. Antisera detected dystrophin with molecular mass close to that of the human in all terrestrial vertebrates and amphibia studied. Experiments with antisera to the N-terminal region of the dystrophin rod confirmed that epitopes to the rod region were conserved during this evolutionary period and the length of this domain remained unaltered.