Dovat S, Gilbert K A, Petrovic-Dovat L, Rannels D E
Department of Pediatrics, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033, USA.
Am J Physiol. 1998 Jul;275(1):L30-7. doi: 10.1152/ajplung.1998.275.1.L30.
Control of alveolar cell growth and differentiation after pneumonectomy likely involves changes in expression of regulatory genes, including those encoding zinc finger (ZF) proteins. To explore this premise, total RNA from the lungs of control and pneumonectomized rats was reverse transcribed; PCRs were performed with degenerate primers corresponding to amino acid sequences HTGEKP and CPECGK(N), which are evolutionarily conserved among ZF genes. Reaction products corresponding to three and four ZF units were isolated and cloned. Sixteen clones were sequenced and found to represent rat lung ZF genes: six clones were highly similar or identical to known ZF genes and ten clones showed lower homology to known ZF genes and thus appear to represent new members of the ZF family. Northern analysis demonstrated differential expression of some ZF genes after pneumonectomy. Thus a PCR-based strategy with primers derived from evolutionarily conserved ZF protein sequences efficiently identifies ZF genes expressed in lung, some of which may play a role in cellular growth and differentiation.
肺切除术后肺泡细胞生长和分化的调控可能涉及调控基因表达的变化，包括那些编码锌指（ZF）蛋白的基因。为了探究这一前提，对对照组和肺切除大鼠肺组织的总RNA进行逆转录；使用与氨基酸序列HTGEKP和CPECGK(N)相对应的简并引物进行PCR，这些序列在ZF基因中具有进化保守性。分离并克隆了对应于三个和四个ZF单元的反应产物。对16个克隆进行测序，发现它们代表大鼠肺ZF基因：6个克隆与已知ZF基因高度相似或相同，10个克隆与已知ZF基因的同源性较低，因此似乎代表ZF家族的新成员。Northern分析表明肺切除术后一些ZF基因存在差异表达。因此，基于PCR的策略，使用来自进化保守的ZF蛋白序列的引物，能够有效地鉴定在肺中表达的ZF基因，其中一些可能在细胞生长和分化中发挥作用。
