Molecular cloning of the mouse osteoglycin-encoding gene.

Osteoglycin (OG) is a glycoprotein that was first isolated from bovine bone. The deduced amino acid (aa) sequence from the cDNA analysis showed that a precursor of OG has consensus leucine-rich repeats. In this study, we have isolated from a mouse limb-bud library cDNA clones encoding a 298-aa OG. This molecule shows 85 and 86% homology to human and bovine OG, respectively. Furthermore, the C-terminal two-thirds of the protein shows 48% homology to the corresponding portion of chick proteoglycan (PG)-Lb, a PG that has been shown to be preferentially expressed in the zone of flattened chondrocytes in the developing limb cartilage. Northern blot analysis of various mouse tissues revealed a 3.7-kb transcript in a limited number of these tissues.