Brack C M, Duan W, Hulbert A J, Schreiber G
Russell Grimwade School of Biochemistry, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol. 1995 Mar;110(3):523-9. doi: 10.1016/0305-0491(94)00200-e.
A cDNA library was constructed from liver RNA of the Australian diprotodont marsupial Macropus eugenii, the Tammar wallaby. A cloned full-length transthyretin cDNA was sequenced. The derived amino-acid sequence showed 68% overall similarity to that of human transthyretin, with 86% similarity in the thyroxine binding site. Comparisons of nucleotide and amino acid sequences from several vertebrate species indicated that the greatest differences were in the region corresponding to the disordered N-terminus of mature human transthyretin. The evolutionary trees deduced from parsimony analyses of amino acid and nucleotide sequences of transthyretins, are consistent with that derived from fossil records.
