Publications (2)1.9 Total impact
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Article: Expressed sequence tag analysis of blood cells in the vanadium-rich ascidian, Ascidia sydneiensis samea--a survey of genes for metal accumulation.
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ABSTRACT: Some species in the family Ascidiidae accumulate vanadium at concentrations in excess of 350 mM, which corresponds to about 10(7) times that found in seawater. The vanadium ions are stored in vacuoles located within vanadium-containing blood cells, vanadocytes. To investigate the phenomenon, an expressed sequence tag analysis (EST) of a cDNA library of Ascidia sydneiensis samea blood cells was carried out. Three hundred clones were obtained and sequenced by EST analysis. A similarity search revealed that 158 of the clones (52.7%) were known genes, and 142 of the clones (47.3%) did not have any similarity to genes registered in the SwissProt database. According to the functions of their genes the identified EST clones were categorized into eight types of clones; these consisted of genes; metal-related proteins (29 clones), signal transduction (22 clones), protein synthesis (17 clones), nuclear proteins (17 clones), cytoskeleton and motility (14 clones), energy conversion (3 clones), hypothetical proteins (11 clones), and others (45 clones). The ferritin homologue has a high degree of similarity to that of mammals; the iron-binding sites of ferritin are well conserved including His-118 which is important for capturing Fe(2+), also works as a ligand for VO(2+).ZOOLOGICAL SCIENCE 10/2002; 19(9):1001-8. · 0.95 Impact Factor -
Article: PCR-cloning of cadmium-inducible peptides in the barnacle, Megabalanus volcano.
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ABSTRACT: A 340 bp DNA fragment was amplified from barnacle (Megabalanus volcano) cDNA by polymerase chain reaction using primers designed based on the amino acid sequences of barnacle cadmium-inducible peptides CdlP1 and CdlP2. The whole sequence was determined by rapid amplification of cDNA ends method. The cDNA contained an open reading frame encoding 71 amino acid residues and the sequences for CdlP1 and CdlP2 were found to be located in the center of this coding region. Although CdlP1 and CdlP2 had been detected only in the cadmium-exposed barnacles, their mRNA was present both in cadmium-exposed barnacles and in unexposed barnacles. These results suggest that posttranslational proteolytic processing may be induced in the presence of cadmium.ZOOLOGICAL SCIENCE 05/2002; 19(4):429-33. · 0.95 Impact Factor