Alfano Christian, Teresa Russo Monia, Spagnuolo Antonietta
Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Stazione Zoologica A. Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121, Naples, Italy.
Gene. 2007 Dec 30;406(1-2):36-41. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2007.05.026. Epub 2007 Jun 16.
A novel gene, named Ci-Pans, was isolated and characterized from the ascidian Ciona intestinalis. It is an 885-bp cDNA, is thought to encode a protein with no sequence similarities to known proteins and shows a spatial and temporal specific expression pattern. In fact, besides a transient early localization in the muscle precursors, it is expressed in a dynamic fashion in the nervous system, during C. intestinalis embryogenesis, reaching very high level of expression as the development proceeds. To study Ci-Pans transcriptional control, we isolated the predicted promoter region of C. intestinalis Ci-Pans using databases for this species. Analysis of transgenic embryos, with a green fluorescence protein (GFP) reporter, showed that approximately 1 kb of the 5'-flanking sequence of the Ci-Pans gene was implicated in its specific expression in the CNS. The data on the expression pattern of Ci-Pans together with the strong activity exhibited by the 1 kb promoter region we have identified, indicate that a more deeply investigation on Ci-Pans could provide clues for exploring the complex network of nervous system-specific genes.
从海鞘肠鳃纲动物中分离并鉴定出一个名为Ci-Pans的新基因。它是一个885个碱基对的cDNA，被认为编码一种与已知蛋白质无序列相似性的蛋白质，并呈现出时空特异性表达模式。事实上，除了在肌肉前体细胞中有短暂的早期定位外，在肠鳃纲动物胚胎发育过程中，它在神经系统中以动态方式表达，随着发育进程表达水平达到非常高的程度。为了研究Ci-Pans的转录调控，我们利用该物种的数据库分离出了肠鳃纲动物Ci-Pans的预测启动子区域。用绿色荧光蛋白（GFP）报告基因对转基因胚胎进行分析表明，Ci-Pans基因5'侧翼序列约1 kb参与了其在中枢神经系统中的特异性表达。Ci-Pans的表达模式数据以及我们鉴定出的1 kb启动子区域所表现出的强活性表明，对Ci-Pans进行更深入的研究可能为探索神经系统特异性基因的复杂网络提供线索。
