Homologues of vertebrate type I, II and III intermediate filament (IF) proteins in an invertebrate: the IF multigene family of the cephalochordate Branchiostoma

FEBS Letters

Karabinos, Anton¹  Weber, Klaus¹  Riemer, Dieter¹  Erber, Andreas¹ 

[1] Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry, Am Fassberg 11, D-37077 Goettingen, Germany

关键词: Intermediate filament;    Keratin;    Vimentin;    Chordate;    Amphioxus;    Branchiostoma;    IF;    intermediate filament;    ME;    2-mercaptoethanol;    RT-PCR;    reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction;   

DOI  :  10.1016/S0014-5793(98)01190-9

学科分类：生物化学/生物物理

来源: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

【 摘 要 】

We searched for functional homologues of the four subfamilies of vertebrate cytoplasmic intermediate filament (IF) proteins in the cephalochordate Branchiostoma. The epidermis contains in addition to IF proteins C2 and D1 two novel IF proteins E1 and E2. Both sequence comparisons as well as the obligatory heteropolymer formation by the recombinant proteins identify E1 as a type I keratin and E2 and D1 as type II keratins. In contrast the non-epidermal B1 forms as type III homologue homopolymeric IF. We propose that type I–III diversification of IF proteins is a property of the chordate branch of metazoa and discuss a possible origin of type IV neurofilaments.

【 授权许可】

Unknown