Ciocan Corina M, Rotchell Jeanette M
Department of Biology and Environmental Science, Centre for Environmental Research, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QJ, UK.
Environ Sci Technol. 2005 May 1;39(9):3029-33. doi: 10.1021/es0400887.
Mussels are susceptible to a wide range of environmental toxicants, including carcinogens, and thus are often employed as bioindicator species. To elucidate the molecular aetiology of such neoplastic damage, we have cloned Mytilus edulis homologues of the vertebrate ras proto-oncogene, and p53 tumor suppressor gene. The M. edulis ras cDNA encodes a predicted protein of 184 amino acids. The DNA sequence analysis with vertebrate ras sequences demonstrates that the M. edulis ras cDNA is highly conserved in regions of functional importance, including mutational hot spots. The partial p53 sequence also demonstrates that M. edulis p53 is highly conserved in two regions of functional importance and that these regions also include four of the five mutational hot spots for this gene. In contrast, the M. edulis p53 sequence shows little similarity to the other published invertebrate p53-like sequences. The cancer gene sequences characterized herein will allow development of specific biomarkers of genotoxic damage.
贻贝易受多种环境毒物影响，包括致癌物，因此常被用作生物指示物种。为阐明此类肿瘤损伤的分子病因，我们克隆了脊椎动物原癌基因ras和p53肿瘤抑制基因的紫贻贝同源物。紫贻贝ras cDNA编码一个预测的184个氨基酸的蛋白质。与脊椎动物ras序列的DNA序列分析表明，紫贻贝ras cDNA在功能重要区域高度保守，包括突变热点。部分p53序列也表明，紫贻贝p53在两个功能重要区域高度保守，且这些区域还包括该基因五个突变热点中的四个。相比之下，紫贻贝p53序列与其他已发表的无脊椎动物p53样序列几乎没有相似性。本文表征的癌症基因序列将有助于开发遗传毒性损伤的特异性生物标志物。
