Hahn S L, Hahn M, Joh T H
Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology, Burke Medical Research Institute, Cornell University Medical College, White Plains, New York 10605.
Mamm Genome. 1991;1(3):145-51. doi: 10.1007/BF00351060.
Aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) is responsible for the conversion of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) and L-5-hydroxytryptophan to dopamine and serotonin, respectively, which are important neurotransmitters. We characterized genomic clones derived from the rat AADC locus by Southern blot and nucleotide sequencing analyses to explore the exonal organization of the gene. Our results suggest that the rat AADC gene is relatively large, containing at least 12 exons and spanning at least 40 kb in the rat genome. In this study, nine exons corresponding to 71% of the published cDNA sequence were identified, the smallest of which was as short as 20 base pairs (bp). In the Drosophila dopa decarboxylase (DDC) gene, the sequences homologous to these nine exons are all present in the fourth exon. This implies that either multiple intron sequences have been added to the vertebrate AADC gene or alternatively, deleted from the invertebrate gene after the divergence of vertebrates and invertebrates during evolution.
芳香族L-氨基酸脱羧酶（AADC）负责将L-3,4-二羟基苯丙氨酸（L-DOPA）和L-5-羟色氨酸分别转化为多巴胺和5-羟色胺，这两种都是重要的神经递质。我们通过Southern印迹和核苷酸测序分析对源自大鼠AADC基因座的基因组克隆进行了表征，以探究该基因的外显子组织。我们的结果表明，大鼠AADC基因相对较大，在大鼠基因组中包含至少12个外显子，跨越至少40 kb。在本研究中，鉴定出了与已发表的cDNA序列的71%相对应的9个外显子，其中最小的外显子短至20个碱基对（bp）。在果蝇多巴脱羧酶（DDC）基因中，与这9个外显子同源的序列都存在于第4个外显子中。这意味着要么是多个内含子序列被添加到了脊椎动物的AADC基因中，要么是在进化过程中脊椎动物和无脊椎动物分化后，这些序列从无脊椎动物基因中被删除了。
