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Characteristics of Gene Structure of Bovine Ghrelin and Influence of Aging on Plasma Ghrelin |
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K. Kita, K. Harada, K. Nagao, H. Yokota |
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| Abstract |
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Ghrelin is a novel growth-hormone-releasing acylated peptide, which has been purified and identified in rat stomach. In the present study, the full-length sequence of bovine ghrelin cDNA was cloned by RT-PCR. The bovine ghrelin cDNA sequence derived in the present study included a 348 bp open reading frame and a 137 bp 3''''UTR. The putative amino acid sequence of bovine prepro-ghrelin consisted of 116 amino acids, which contained the 27-amino acid ghrelin. The sequence analysis of the bovine ghrelin gene revealed that an intron existed between Gln13 and Arg14 of ghrelin. This exon-intron boundary matched the GT-AG rule of the splicing mechanism. Compared with rats, which have two tandem CAG sequences in the 3`-end of intron, bovine ghrelin genome has only one CAG sequence. Therefore, although rats can produce 28 amino acid-ghrelin and 27 amino acid-des-Gln14-ghrelin by alternative splicing, ruminant species, including bovines, might be able to produce only one type of ghrelin peptide, des-Gln14-ghrelin. The influence of aging on plasma ghrelin concentration was also examined. Plasma ghrelin concentration increased after birth to approximately 600 days of age, and then remained constant. |
| Keywords:
Ghrelin; cDNA; Genomic DNA; Plasma Concentration; Cattle |
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